Category: Chemistry

Biology Chemistry Environment 

Learning Where Water Comes From, With Isotopes

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Researchers track the origins of water across the world, and how it varies over time and place, by analyzing its hydrogen and oxygen isotopes. by Nicholas Dove and Alyssa Abbey Did you ever wonder where your water is coming from? For many of us, drinking a glass of water is as easy as turning on the tap. But, the journey of water from a single raindrop to your drinking glass starts long before then. Water can actually travel hundreds of miles or take hundreds of years before it finally reaches…

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Biology Botany Chemistry 

Microbes Help Plants Survive Heavy Metal Stress

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By Radhika Desikan When you hear the term heavy metal, what do you think of? Music or chemistry? Exposure to heavy metal music can cause stress in some humans. But what about chemical heavy metals? Are they good or bad for the environment and living organisms? In chemical terms, heavy metals are elements in earth’s crust that have a high density (weight), and they include zinc, copper, iron, silver, gold, arsenic, lead, and cobalt, to name a few. While trace amounts of heavy metals such as copper, iron, cobalt, and…

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Anthropology Biology Botany Chemistry 

Leaf Age Matters for Plant Survival

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By Radhika Desikan Does age really matter? For us humans, age seems to be a very sensitive issue relevant to how we live our lives. And while it also matters to plants, it does so at a different level. Some of our tissues, like skin, have cells that are constantly dividing (to replace dead cells) and therefore differ in age, but what defines our age as an organism is not the life span of individual cells in our body, but rather the length of time that has passed since our…

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Biology Botany Chemistry 

To Grow or Not to Grow? Bacteria Make Seeds Think!

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By Radhika Desikan A seed is the beginning of new life for most flowering plants. It has all the potential to develop into a new plant, with its own stored food used for germination (the sprouting of a seed). However, if you have done any gardening, you might know that not all seeds always germinate. Whether or not a seed grows into a plant is determined by a number of factors, such as the presence of oxygen, water, and the right temperature. Seeds have a remarkable ability to detect whether…

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Astronomy and Astrophysics Chemistry 

Green Bank Telescope: Two Weeks as a Visiting Astronomer in the Quiet Zone

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Pictured in the image above is the Jansky Laboratory, where scientific research is conducted at the Green Bank Observatory, with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in the background. The Jansky Lab is named for physicist and telephone engineer Karl Guthe Jansky, who in the 1930s first detected radio waves coming from the center of the Milky Way. By Olivia Wilkins Green Bank, West Virginia is known as “America’s Quietest Town”: there is no cell-phone service, and the use of wireless Internet, digital cameras, and even microwaves is heavily restricted. It…

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Chemistry 

Using Flow Cytometry in Biomedical Science

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Flow cytometry is a common laser technique scientists use to look at the characteristics of each single cell in a large population of cells. By Kate Warde How flow cytometry works In flow cytometry, cells are labeled with fluorescent tags that correspond to a specific target; for instance, if we want to look at protein X on a cell, we add a tag that binds to this protein. When the cells run through the cytometer, they are contained in a liquid that flows in single file so that each individual…

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Science with Sophie: Bubble Gum Chemistry Science Videos STEM Education 

Science with Sophie: Bubble Gum

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Bubble Gum Science Have you ever had gum stuck in your hair? Swallowed your gum? Found a wad of chewed gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe? If these things make you wonder what bubble gum really is and how it works, then you might be a scientist, and this video is for you. Do the science experiment with Sophie To do the bubble gum science experiment, you’ll need these things: 3 sticks of gum 1 freezer Go get those things and start the video! [tweetthis twitter_handles=”@ScienceWithSoph”]People chew 100,000…

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Science with Sophie: Tears and Snot: Why do we make tears? Biology Chemistry Health Science Videos STEM Education 

Science with Sophie: Tears and Snot

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To do the science experiment with Sophie, you’ll need: Borax (find it in the laundry aisle of a grocery store) Water Equal parts clear school glue and water (for example, 1 cup glue and 1 cup water) Food coloring 2 bowls 1 Spoon Your hands   [tweetthis twitter_handles=”@ScienceWithSoph”]Why do people make tears? Find out in this episode of Science with Sophie![/tweetthis] About Science With Sophie Science With Sophie is an interactive science comedy series for all ages. This fast-paced show invites viewers to explore science all around them and remember…

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Wood Ants Make Defensive Cocktails Against Microbes Chemistry Zoology 

Wood Ants Make Defensive Cocktails Against Microbes

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By Neha Jain @lifesciexplore Wood ants are natural mixologists, concocting their own defensive cocktails, a new study finds. They protect themselves from infection by mixing self-produced acid with resin collected from trees to create a potent antimicrobial. “This is an unusual case where insects combine plant defenses with their own chemical defenses to produce a potent antimicrobial substance,” says Michel Chapuisat, of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, who is the senior author of the study. We sanitize our homes using cleaners such as alcohol and bleach to protect ourselves from…

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