Covestro has announced a research breakthrough for the use of plant-based raw materials in plastics production: aniline, an important basic chemical, can now be derived from biomass, the company claims.

Through analyzes of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, a research team led by Lund University in Sweden has found evidence of an extreme solar storm that occurred about 9200 years ago. What puzzles the researchers is that the storm took place during one of the sun's more quiet phases

MIT engineers report that they have cooked up a material that is 10 times blacker than anything that has previously been described. The material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, or CNTs — microscopic filaments of carbon, like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees, that the team grew on a surface of chlorine-etched aluminum foil. The foil captures at least 99.995 % of any incoming light, making it the blackest material on record.

Researchers at QuSoft and the Institute of Physics have come up with a new method for quantum computing in trapped ions. Under this method, two trapped ions are selected by applying optical tweezers on them and the electric field makes sure that the two ions move together with all the other ions in a crystal. Thus, a quantum gate between the ions can be adopted.

A team of mathematicians and physicists has discovered how ice formations are shaped by external forces, such as water temperature. Its newly published research may offer another means for gauging factors that cause ice to melt.

Scientists at Lancaster University are working with researchers and farmers in Mexico to introduce the public to different types of tomatoes to stop the loss of vital varieties. These tomatoes could hold the key to preserving tomato crops in an ever more challenging climate.

Homogeneity is an important requirement for many samples in the labo­ratory — regardless of whether they are required for analyses or syntheses. Read how you can use a new mixer mill to produce powders with particle sizes down to the nanometer range.

Life science specialists, Amsbio, have made a new strategic investment to enhance the level of support to its sizeable and growing base of customers across the European Union.

Eppendorf recently expanded its centrifuge offering with the acquisition Koki Holdings' centrifuge business, whose products are marketed globally under the brand name Himac.

Polycarbin has launched its ‘Closed-Loop Collection’ which comprises of products that have been remanufactured from recycled laboratory plastic. The move has been carried out to address the problem of ‘single use’ plastics as well as to reduce the need for more carbon-intensive virgin resins thereby creating a low-carbon economy.