Organic Chemistry News

September 21, 2025

Top Headlines

Harvard’s Salt Trick Could Turn Billions of Tons of Hair Into Eco-friendly Materials

Sep. 17, 2025 — Scientists at Harvard have discovered how salts like lithium bromide break down tough proteins such as keratin—not by attacking the proteins directly, but by altering the surrounding water ...

Scientists Create Biodegradable Plastic Stronger Than PET

Sep. 4, 2025 — A Japanese research team successfully harnessed E. coli to produce PDCA, a strong, biodegradable plastic alternative. Their method avoids toxic byproducts and achieves record production levels, overcoming key roadblocks with creative ...

A Simple Metal Could Solve the World’s Plastic Recycling Problem

Sep. 3, 2025 — Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a groundbreaking nickel-based catalyst that could transform the way the world recycles plastic. Instead of requiring tedious sorting, the catalyst selectively breaks down stubborn polyolefin ...

Scientists Create Scalable Quantum Node Linking Light and Matter

Aug. 29, 2025 — Quantum scientists in Innsbruck have taken a major leap toward building the internet of the future. Using a string of calcium ions and finely tuned lasers, they created quantum nodes capable of generating streams of entangled photons with 92% ...

A Tiny Chip May Have Solved One of Clean Energy’s Biggest Problems

Aug. 28, 2025 — In just one afternoon, scientists used a nanoparticle “megalibrary” to find a catalyst that matches or exceeds iridium’s performance in hydrogen fuel production, at a fraction of the ...

This Tiny Iron Catalyst Could Transform the Future of Clean Energy

Aug. 27, 2025 — Hydrogen fuel cells could power cars, devices, and homes with nothing but water as a byproduct—but platinum’s cost holds them back. Chinese researchers have now unveiled a breakthrough iron-based catalyst that could rival platinum while boosting ...

Scientists Found a New Way to Turn Sunlight Into Fuel

Aug. 26, 2025 — A research team created a plant-inspired molecule that can store four charges using sunlight, a key step toward artificial photosynthesis. Unlike past attempts, it works with dimmer light, edging closer to real-world solar fuel ...

Scientists Crack Indole’s Toughest Bond with Copper, Unlocking New Medicines

Aug. 26, 2025 — Scientists have cracked one of chemistry’s toughest challenges with indoles, using copper to unlock a spot once thought too stubborn to change. The discovery could pave the way for easier, cheaper ...

Stopping Time in Cells Exposes Life’s Fastest Secrets

Aug. 24, 2025 — Scientists have developed a groundbreaking cryo-optical microscopy technique that freezes living cells mid-action, capturing ultra-detailed snapshots of fast biological processes. By rapidly immobilizing cells at precise moments, researchers can ...

Scientists Discover Crystal That Breathes Oxygen Like Lungs

Aug. 22, 2025 — Researchers developed a crystal that inhales and exhales oxygen like lungs. It stays stable under real-world conditions and can be reused many times, making it ideal for energy and electronic applications. This innovation could reshape technologies ...

Tiny Gold “Super Atoms” Could Spark a Quantum Revolution

Aug. 11, 2025 — Scientists have found that microscopic gold clusters can act like the world’s most accurate quantum systems, while being far easier to scale up. With tunable spin properties and mass production potential, they could transform quantum computing and ...

AI Just Found 5 Powerful Materials That Could Replace Lithium Batteries

Aug. 2, 2025 — AI is helping scientists crack the code on next-gen batteries that could replace lithium-ion tech. By discovering novel porous materials, researchers may have paved the way for more powerful and sustainable energy storage using abundant elements ...

Latest Headlines

updated 3:16am EDT

Enceladus’s Plumes May Be Fooling Us About Life

Sep. 9, 2025 — Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus has long fascinated scientists with its spectacular water plumes, which NASA’s Cassini spacecraft once revealed to contain organic molecules. Many hoped these ...

One Atom, Endless Power: Scientists Create a Shape-Shifting Catalyst for Green Chemistry

Aug. 19, 2025 — A team in Milan has developed a first-of-its-kind single-atom catalyst that acts like a molecular switch, enabling cleaner, more adaptable chemical ...

Scientists Finally Tame the Impossible 48-Atom Carbon Ring

Aug. 17, 2025 — Researchers have synthesized a stable cyclo[48]carbon, a unique 48-carbon ring that can be studied in solution at room temperature, a feat never achieved ...

Scientists Stunned by Record-Breaking, Watermelon-Shaped Nucleus

Aug. 16, 2025 — Scientists in Finland have measured the heaviest known nucleus to undergo proton emission, discovering the rare isotope 188-astatine. It exhibits a unique shape and may reveal a new kind of nuclear ...

Accidental Lab Discovery Reveals Gold’s Secret Chemistry

Aug. 11, 2025 — Scientists at SLAC unexpectedly created gold hydride, a compound of gold and hydrogen, while studying diamond formation under extreme pressure and heat. This discovery challenges gold’s reputation ...

Scientists Just Recreated the Universe’s First Molecule and Solved a 13-Billion-Year-Old Puzzle

Aug. 3, 2025 — Long before stars lit up the sky, the universe was a hot, dense place where simple chemistry quietly set the stage for everything to come. Scientists ...

Scientists Unveil Bioplastic That Degrades at Room Temperature, and Outperforms Petroplastics

Aug. 3, 2025 — Plastic pollution is a mounting global issue, but scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have taken a bold step forward by creating a new ...

Scientists Finally Solve the Mystery of What Triggers Lightning

Aug. 1, 2025 — A Penn State-led research team has unraveled the long-standing mystery of how lightning begins inside thunderclouds. Their findings offer the first quantitative, physics-based explanation for ...

Decades of Chemistry Rewritten: A Textbook Reaction Just Flipped

July 28, 2025 — Penn State researchers have uncovered a surprising twist in a foundational chemical reaction known as oxidative addition. Typically believed to involve transition metals donating electrons to organic ...

An ‘impossible’ 20-Electron Molecule Challenges 100 Years of Chemistry

July 28, 2025 — Scientists at OIST have defied a foundational rule in chemistry by creating a stable 20-electron version of ferrocene—an organometallic molecule once thought to be limited to 18 valence electrons. ...

Scientists Discover Salt That Makes Batteries Last 10x Longer

July 27, 2025 — A team at KAUST has revealed that the short lifespan of aqueous batteries is primarily due to "free water" molecules triggering harmful chemical reactions at the anode. By adding affordable ...

Concrete That Lasts Centuries and Captures Carbon? AI Just Made It Possible

July 23, 2025 — Imagine concrete that not only survives wildfires and extreme weather, but heals itself and absorbs carbon from the air. Scientists at USC have created an AI model called Allegro-FM that simulates ...

Aluminium-20 Shatters Nuclear Norms With Explosive Triple-Proton Breakup

July 22, 2025 — Scientists have observed a brand-new and exotic atomic nucleus: aluminium-20. Unlike anything seen before, it decays through a stunning three-proton emission sequence, shedding light on nuclear ...

Cracking the Carbene Code: A 100x Faster Path to Life-Saving Drugs

July 20, 2025 — Using a clever combo of iron and radical chemistry, scientists have unlocked a safer, faster way to create carbenes molecular powerhouses key to modern medicine and materials. It s 100x more ...

Chirality Shock: Geneva Chemists Forge Millennia-Stable ‘mirror-Proof’ Drugs

July 15, 2025 — Chemists at the University of Geneva and University of Pisa have crafted a novel family of chiral molecules whose mirror-image “handedness” remains rock-solid for tens of thousands of years. By ...

This Algorithm Just Solved One of Physics’ Most Infamous Problems

July 14, 2025 — Using an advanced Monte Carlo method, Caltech researchers found a way to tame the infinite complexity of Feynman diagrams and solve the long-standing polaron problem, unlocking deeper understanding ...

A Simple Twist Unlocks Never-Before-Seen Quantum Behavior

July 11, 2025 — Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new method for creating quantum states by twisting materials at the M-point, revealing exotic phenomena previously out of reach. This new direction ...

Forget 3D printing—DNA and Water Now Build Tiny Machines That Assemble Themselves

July 10, 2025 — Imagine if you could "print" a tiny skyscraper using DNA instead of steel. That’s what researchers at Columbia and Brookhaven are doing—constructing intricate 3D nanostructures by ...

Goodbye Plastic? Scientists Create New Supermaterial That Outperforms Metals and Glass

July 22, 2025 — Scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston have created a powerful new material by guiding bacteria to grow cellulose in aligned patterns, resulting in sheets with the strength of ...

Hidden DNA-Sized Crystals in Cosmic Ice Could Rewrite Water—and Life Itself

July 9, 2025 — Scientists from UCL and the University of Cambridge have revealed that "space ice"—long thought to be completely disordered—is actually sprinkled with tiny crystals, changing our ...

Can One Vanishing Particle Shatter String Theory — and Explain Dark Matter?

July 5, 2025 — Scientists are on the trail of a mysterious five-particle structure that could challenge one of the biggest theories in physics: string theory. This rare particle—never seen before and predicted ...

A Shocking New Way to Make Ammonia, No Fossil Fuels Needed

July 5, 2025 — Australian scientists have discovered a method to produce ammonia—an essential component in fertilizers—using only air and electricity. By mimicking lightning and channeling that energy through a ...

Scientists Just Mapped Platinum Atoms — and It Could Transform Catalysis Forever

July 3, 2025 — A precious metal used everywhere from car exhaust systems to fuel cells, platinum is an incredibly efficient catalyst—but it's costly and carbon-intensive. Now, a serendipitous collaboration ...

Scientists Just Recreated a 1938 Experiment That Could Rewrite Fusion History

July 9, 2025 — A groundbreaking collaboration between Los Alamos scientists and Duke University has resurrected a nearly forgotten 1938 experiment that may have quietly sparked the age of fusion energy. Arthur ...

This Triple-Layer Sunlight Catalyst Supercharges Green Hydrogen by 800%

June 23, 2025 — Researchers in Sweden have developed a powerful new material that dramatically boosts the ability to create hydrogen fuel from water using sunlight, making the process eight times more effective than ...

Photon-Powered Alchemy: How Light Is Rewriting Fossil Fuel Chemistry

June 20, 2025 — Researchers at Colorado State University have developed a new photoredox catalysis system that uses visible light mimicking photosynthesis to drive energy-intensive chemical reactions at room ...

Rice University Breakthrough Keeps CO₂ Electrolyzers Running 50x Longer

June 22, 2025 — A Rice University team discovered that bubbling CO₂ through a mild acid dramatically improves the lifespan and efficiency of electrochemical devices that convert CO₂ into useful fuels. This ...

Hydrogen Fuel at Half the Cost? Scientists Reveal a Game-Changing Catalyst

June 20, 2025 — Researchers in South Korea have developed a powerful and affordable new material for producing hydrogen, a clean energy source key to fighting climate change. By fine-tuning boron-doping and ...

Guest Molecules Ride Perfect Waves in Dna droplets—A Breakthrough for Synthetic Biology

June 13, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered a previously unknown type of molecular motion inside DNA-based droplets: instead of spreading randomly, guest molecules advance in an organized wave. This surprising ...

Heavy Particles, Big Secrets: What Happened Right After the Big Bang

June 17, 2025 — Smashing atomic nuclei together at mind-bending speeds recreates the fiery conditions of the early universe and scientists are finally getting a better handle on what happens next. A sweeping new ...