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24 stories from Planck Standard. Latest: August 29, 2026.
PNNL and SLAC combined ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy and scattering to see the solvent rearrange as a molecule picked up a proton — the coupling at the heart of proton-coupled electron transfer.
Pentavalent uranium was supposed to be fleeting. German researchers found bacteria producing it in bulk, bound into a compound so stable it gained ground when exposed to oxygen.
Instead of handing an electron to whichever molecule wants it most, a University of Wisconsin–Madison team ejects it into the solvent — where it will attach to almost anything.
Chinese researchers wrapped a light-absorbing core in a shell that shuttles protons the way a cell membrane does, hitting 1.2% solar-to-chemical efficiency — and it keeps working when embedded in a hydrogel and left outside.
A beam that both spins and corkscrews as it travels shatters mirror-image versions of the same molecule at measurably different rates — a cheaper, stronger signal than the optical methods the drug industry relies on now.
By jolting a mix of simple gases with 10,000 volts, a University of Sydney researcher brewed synthetic cosmic dust laced with the carbon-based molecules that form the building blocks of living things.
Tulane researchers found that atoms on certain gold surfaces shift into a protective 'herringbone' pattern that leaves oxygen molecules no room to split apart — suppressing the reactions that corrode ordinary metals by up to a trillion times.
Tulane researchers found that atoms on gold surfaces reorganize into protective patterns that cut oxidation by a factor of up to a trillion, explaining the metal's centuries-long luster.
University of Auckland researchers found that the strange metal's covalent bonds don't vanish for good when it melts — they re-form at higher temperatures, rewriting how we explain why gallium melts in your hand.
Cambridge-led researchers find that confined water isn't inherently more reactive — crushing internal pressure and the chemistry of the surrounding surface explain the long-mysterious effect.
After a 14-year effort, chemists in Japan built a stable solid that upconverts visible light into UV, opening the door to sunlight-powered air purification, 3D printing and photocatalysis.
A new study comparing kombucha made from black, green, white, oolong and pu-erh teas found that green and oolong versions pack the strongest antioxidant punch.
A new study shows that hydrogen radicals generated by intense ultraviolet light can strip fluorine from PFAS molecules and break them apart — with no added chemicals required.
Osaka Metropolitan University researchers built a solar device that tracks its own peak power as the sun shifts, turning carbon dioxide and water into fuel without batteries or electronics.
Washington University engineers built a metal-phosphide cathode that outperformed platinum-based versions in lab tests, tackling one of the biggest cost barriers to green hydrogen.
Researchers demonstrate that compact satellite-based instrument could reveal complete elemental composition across entire lunar surface.
A Brown University team stabilized a long-theorized transitional crystal structure — captured directly for the first time — opening a new route to engineering advanced materials.
Scientists adapt centuries-old glassmaking techniques to improve revolutionary porous materials for clean energy and gas storage applications.
A modified pyrimidone molecule absorbs sunlight, locks it away as chemical strain, and releases it later as heat on demand — at 1.6 megajoules per kilogram.
First evidence of these prized compounds found in just one of three strains studied, revealing unexpected chemical diversity in cannabis plants.
Electrons in the exotic C₁₃Cl₂ molecule travel in a corkscrew pattern requiring four loops to return to their starting phase — a quantum behavior only a quantum computer could simulate.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute identified the complete enzyme pathway that produces quinine in tree bark, including a novel intermediate compound called cinchonium never seen before in nature.
When a PhD student forgot to add a catalyst to his reaction, it worked better without it — leading to an 'anti-Friedel-Crafts' reaction published in Nature Synthesis that lets chemists fine-tune drug molecules at any stage of development using nothing more than an LED lamp.
Kelly Chibale's Holistic Drug Discovery Centre in South Africa represents rare African facility capable of developing medicines for malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases that disproportionately affect the continent.