And because the cups were just being trashed, Sparling and colleague David Levin decided to try a little biological alchemy. The cups “would make excellent food for the bacteria that we use to make biofuels, such as ethanol or even hydrogen,” Sparling said. So, “on a whim,” Sparling and Levin started their project in 2009 and have since been collecting discarded drink containers from bins set up outside Tim Hortons outlets on the Manitoba campus.
by Marc S. Reisch | August 23, 2010
This milestone in cellular alchemy was achieved through genetic engineering: by infecting the skin cell with a virus containing four genes. Expression of these four genes ignited a cascade of signals that morphed the skin cell into one with superpowers in about a fortnight. Some scientists are trying to reproduce this cellular alchemy with small molecules because gene therapies have been plagued by safety concerns on their way to the clinic.
by Sarah Everts | February 08, 2010
Back in the early 1600s, alchemy was still ubiquitous, but the sciences were also making their debut in academia. Professorships in medicine, surgery, and pharmacy had already been established at a few universities in Europe. Although pharmacy research in those days certainly had commonalities with the burgeoning field of chemistry, the Marburg appointment in 1609 was the first "by name" chemistry faculty appointment, says Jonathan Simon, a science historian at the University of Lyon, in France, a view echoed by five other historians whom C&EN interviewed.
by Sarah Everts | November 02, 2009
She scoured the alchemy book collection at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia. She immersed herself in the myriad ways the periodic table has been portrayed by scientists, philosophers, and artists. In that endeavor, she was magnetically drawn to a set of “Atom Flowers” in which the s, p, d, and f orbitals of the elements are drawn out as nested petals in renditions that look like flowers.
by Ivan Amato | October 05, 2009
But he conceded for the first time in 20 years that the studies qualify as real science as opposed to some type of pseudoscience, alchemy, or quackery. Krivit sums up the situation like this: "The possible implications of LENR may be wonderful, terrifying, or both." As cold-fusion/LENR researchers keep chasing their dream, a team of veterinarians has reported a surprising link between COMPULSIVE TAIL-CHASING in dogs and high cholesterol.
by Stephen K. Ritter | June 15, 2009
It's finding a way to make it catch on that will be the modern-day alchemy. /articles/86/i26/Newscripts.html 20080630 86 26 /magazine/86/8626.html Newscripts newscript Carmen Drahl business The deadly gas H2S is characterized by the smell of rotten eggs. What word pops into your head when you see this logo?
by Carmen Drahl | June 30, 2008
They also say that chemistry has reason for these concerns because in the past it has been associated with alchemy, sorcery, and mad scientists, and in modern times, with chemical warfare and environmental pollution. One chapter author goes so far as to state that popularizing chemistry is a problem because it "now writhes beneath popular dislike to a greater degree than other sciences."
by Martha L. Casey | June 02, 2008
I wonder if those writers would advocate teaching alchemy or astrology? No one is saying that intelligent life does not exist somewhere else in the universe. The odds are that it does. The theory of evolution teaches that life evolves into forms that are better adapted to the conditions of their environment.
May 12, 2008
To Feynman, even this modern alchemy would be a yawner. Far more fascinating, said he, would be inventing entirely new quarks, which would open a portal to entirely new kinds of matter or, in his words, "periodic tables from other universes." This would not be your father's chemistry. Beyond femtotechnology, even Feynman admitted he was treading on the thin ice of speculation.
by Ivan Amato | March 10, 2008