2024
Read summaries of cutting-edge chemistry research and news based on articles from ACS journals. Registered journalists can subscribe to the ACS journalist news portal on EurekAlert! to access embargoed and public science press releases. For media inquiries, contact newsroom@acs.org.
October
September
- Fruit juice offers a fresh take on kombucha
- Who lives in the treetops? DNA-collecting drone provides insights
- Shrinking AR displays into eyeglasses to expand their use
- Spinning artificial spider silk into next-generation medical materials
- Alleviating depression in mice by restoring gut microbiome
- Four recent discoveries involving olives or their oil
- Folded or cut, this lithium-sulfur battery keeps going
- Carbohydrate polymers could be a sweet solution for water purification
- Separating viruses from saliva with sound waves for therapeutic studies
- How fish guts might play a role in future skin care products
- Research update: Recreational tubing, swimming leaves an impact on streams
- Scientists use magnetic nanotech to safely rewarm frozen tissues for transplant
- Why dinosaur collagen might have staying power
- Levels of one ‘forever chemical’ are increasing in groundwater, study finds
August
- Upcycling excess carbon dioxide with tiny microbes
- Getting the stink out of smoke-tainted wine
- Chalk-based coating creates a cooling fabric
- Pilot study uses recycled glass to grow plants for salsa ingredients
- Extraterrestrial chemistry with earthbound possibilities
- Improving access to heart-failure screening with saliva
- Expanding a child’s heart implant with light
- Evidence stacks up for poisonous books containing toxic dyes
- Peering into the mind of artificial intelligence to make better antibiotics
- Researchers develop an instant version of trendy, golden turmeric milk
- Exploring the structures of xenon-containing crystallites
- Rising mercury pollution in soil could be related to climate change, study says
- Treating radiation wounds with aspirin hydrogels
- Getting trapped in freshwater ice changes microplastics’ sink-or-swim tendencies
- How do butterflies stick to branches during metamorphosis?
- Researchers show pesticide contamination is more than apple skin deep
- Improving cat food flavors with the help of feline taste-testers
July
- Improving Alzheimer’s disease imaging — with fluorescent sensors
- Mucus-based bioink could be used to print and grow lung tissue
- Enzyme-powered ‘snot bots’ help deliver drugs in sticky situations
- Designing safer opioids
- Completely stretchy lithium-ion battery for flexible electronics
- Sporty chemistry news ahead of the Summer Olympics
- Predicting long-lasting pain from LASIK with tear proteins
June
- Revealing the dynamic choreography inside multilayer vesicles
- Some landfill ‘burps’ contain airborne PFAS, study finds
- Small, adsorbent ‘fins’ collect humidity rather than swim through water
- Melamine sponges shed microplastics when scrubbed
- Wooden surfaces may have natural antiviral properties
- Mobile monitoring for an airborne carcinogen in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’
- Four-legged, dog-like robot ‘sniffs’ hazardous gases in inaccessible environments
- Scientists ‘read’ the messages in chemical clues left by coral reef inhabitants
- How milk proteins interact with caffeine in espresso
May
- This self-powered sensor could make MRIs more efficient
- Four advances that curd change your next cheese tasting
- New anti-counterfeit technique packs two light-reactive images into one material
- Electrochromic films — like sunglasses for your windows?
- Chocolate’s tasty flavors might pose a risk in other desserts
- Flexible film senses nearby movements — featured in blink-tracking glasses
- ‘Forever chemicals’ found to rain down on all five Great Lakes
- Temperature, time and blueberry wine
- Scientists convert chicken fat into energy storage devices
- ‘Smart’ contact lenses could someday enable wireless glaucoma detection
- Swarms of miniature robots clean up microplastics and microbes, simultaneously (video)
- Centipedes used in traditional Chinese medicine offer leads for kidney treatment
- This highly reflective black paint makes objects more visible to autonomous cars
- Marriage of synthetic biology and 3D printing produces programmable living materials
April
- The longer spilled oil lingers in freshwater, the more persistent compounds it produces
- The secret to saving old books could be gluten-free glues
- This salt battery harvests osmotic energy where the river meets the sea
- Some plant-based steaks and cold cuts are lacking in protein
- Study finds iron-rich enamel protects, but doesn’t color, rodents’ orange-brown incisors
- Three advances in pavement technology — for safer, more sustainable roadways
- A new spin on organic shampoo makes it sudsier, longer lasting
- Four recent drug discoveries with unlikely inspirations
- Waterproof ‘e-glove’ could help scuba divers communicate
- How mosquito larva guts could help create highly specific insecticides
- Testing environmental water to monitor COVID-19 spread in unsheltered encampments
- Water-based paints: Less stinky, but some still contain potentially hazardous chemicals
- A simple way to harvest more ‘blue energy’ from waves
- Golfers’ risk from pesticides used on turfgrass is likely low, studies find
March
- Nutritional rewards and risks revealed for edible seaweed around Hawaii
- New model clarifies why water freezes at a range of temperatures
- Crawfish could transfer ionic lithium from their environment into food chain
- Cleaning up environmental contaminants with quantum dot technology
- Hitting this stretchy, electronic material makes it tougher
- Toxic metal particles can be present in cannabis vapes even before the first use
- Molecular crystal motors move like microbes when exposed to light
- Is food waste the key to sustainable, plastic-free diapers and sanitary pads?
- Artificial mucus identifies link to tumor formation
- New composite decking could reduce global warming effects of building materials
- Mimicking exercise with a pill
- The many flavors of edible ants
- Better kombucha brewing through chemistry
- Animal hair structure changes from summer to winter to fend off freezing weather
- Protein fragments ID two new ‘extremophile’ microbes — and may help find alien life
- You don’t need glue to hold these materials together — just electricity
- Lithium-ion batteries from drones might find second lives in less ‘stressful’ devices
February
- A bright idea for recycling rare-earth phosphors from used fluorescent bulbs
- Want fewer microplastics in your tap water? Try boiling it first
- ‘Artificial tongue’ detects and inactivates common mouth bacteria
- A new vibrant blue pottery pigment with less cobalt
- Highways through historically redlined areas likely cause air pollution disparities today
- Mercury levels in tuna remain nearly unchanged since 1971, study says
- Compounds in female ginseng could lead to new osteoporosis treatments
- Three unexpected foods in alternatives to traditional plastics
- Pesticides to help protect seeds can adversely affect earthworms’ health
- Cleaned surfaces may be germ-free, but they’re not bare
- Lighting up Alzheimer’s-related proteins to allow for earlier disease detection
- A sleeker facial recognition technology tested on Michelangelo’s David
- Five advances that could change heart health monitoring
January
- Lifetime of ‘biodegradable’ straws in the ocean is 8-20 months, study finds
- A non-allergenic wheat protein for growing better cultivated meat
- Puffed-up MOFs for improved drug delivery
- Using magnetized neurons to treat Parkinson’s disease symptoms
- Next-generation batteries could go organic, cobalt-free for long-lasting power
- Artificial ‘power plants’ harness energy from wind and rain
- Glowing COVID-19 diagnostic test prototype produces results in one minute
- Microplastics from natural fertilizers are blowing in the wind more often than once thought
- A more eco-friendly facial sheet mask that moisturizes, even though it’s packaged dry
- PFAS flow equally between Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, study finds
- Recent advances in medical applications of nanoparticles
- Designing the ‘perfect’ meal to feed long-term space travelers