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Rice University chemists bake graphene out of Girl Scout cookies, redefine low-carb diets (video)
Would you like some cookies? Well, you're gonna have to buy them, and then get thee to a Rice University chem lab, stat! The Texas institution of higher learning recently played host to Girl Scouts Troop Beverly Hills 25080, turning their om nom carbohydrated delights into billion dollar graphene. Resident scientist James Tour gathered his gaggle of grad students for a hands-on demo, walking the future Phyllis Neflers through the transformative steps that convert carbon-based material (see: a box of Samoas), into $15 billion worth of scientific loot -- or as one astute troopster put it, "... a lot of cash." Indeed it is young lady, but something tells us your well-earned Science in Action badge won't go too well with those cookie-bought Louboutins. Skip past the break for the full video and a little "Cookie Time" nostalgia.
Periodic Table welcomes two new, ultraheavy elements, jury still out on the names
If you bump in to the Periodic Table of Elements today, be sure to give it a hearty Mazel Tov, because it's just welcomed two new members to the family. Yesterday, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially recognized elements 114 and 116, crediting the discovery to scientists from Russia's Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California. Boasting atomic masses of 289 and 292, respectively, the new man-made additions are now the heaviest elements on record, seizing the belt from copernicium (285) and roentgenium (272). As with most heavyweights, however, both decay within less than a second, making it difficult for researchers to get a grasp of their chemical properties. Nevertheless, both apparently had enough credibility to survive IUPAC's three-year review process, paving the way for the real fun to begin. At the moment, 114 and 116 are known, rather coldly, as ununquadium and ununhexium, respectively, though their names will eventually be jazzed up -- sort of. The Russian team has already proposed flerovium for 114 (after Soviet nuclear physicist Georgy Flyorov), and, for 116, the Moscow-inspired moscovium, which sounds more like an after shave for particularly macho chemists. IUPAC will have the final say on the matter, though one committee member said any proposed names are likely to be approved, as long as "it's not something too weird." Head past the break for a full, and somewhat obtuse PR.
Purdue researchers craft handheld chemical analyzer, likens Tricorder
Hot on the heels of being crowned the most prolific pirating university in the land, Purdue is donning its halo once again by kicking out yet another invention that will surely make the world a better place to reside. The Mini 10 prototype is a handheld chemical analyzer that its creators have likened to Star Trek's "Tricorder," and while the internal abilities should genuinely impress, we're handing out a round of golf claps for the uber-glitzy motif it's got going on. The sophisticated sensing system measures just 13.5- x 8.5- x 7.5-inches and weighs in at 22-pounds, which is around 30 times less than conventional mass spectrometers, and aside from its ability to be completely portable via battery power, it still sports the same sniffing capabilities as its mammoth-sized siblings. In order to cram such potent chemical sensing abilities into such a small package, a miniature mass spectrometer is "combined with a technique called desorption electrospray ionization (DESI)," and can display the chemical composition of materials in a "matter of minutes without harming the samples." Interestingly enough, the prototype has already analyzed garb, food, and actual cocaine, and while we're not quite sure when you'll be able to snatch one of these up to "check in" on your mischievous teen, a couple of Indiana-based firms are apparently already looking into commercialization options.Slashdot]
Microfluidic computer runs on bubbles, deals in chemical analysis
Flipping over to alternate energy sources isn't just the rage in vehicles, as we've seen steam-powered and string-powered computers already, and now we're witnessing an oddity that's actually energized by bubbles. The "microfluidic" computer performs calculations by squeezing bubbles through tiny channels etched into a chip, and although it runs around 1,000 times slower than you're average desktop today and takes up quite a bit more room, no AC outlet is required to churn out chemical analysis. Manu Prakash and Neil Gershenfeld of the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms created the devices by "etching channels about one micron wide into silicon, and then using nitrogen bubbles contained in water to represent bits of information flowing through these channels." The computer utilizes Boolean logic functions to carry out its work, and the researchers are already envisioning it carrying bubbles of molecules or individual cells to "conduct diagnostics or detect pathogens." We'll admit, a bubble-powered PC ain't too shabby, but even proponents fessed up that such a snail isn't putting modern day machine vendors out of business anytime soon.
Chemists craft molecular keypad lock
While the folks behind the AACS could probably use a few pointers about constructing a sufficient lock of their own, a group of scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovat, Israel have crafted a molecule-sized "keypad lock" that "only activates when exposed to the correct password, a sequence of chemicals and light." Organic chemist Abraham Shanzer and his colleagues suggest that their invention could "lead to a new level of safeguards for secret information," but we tend think the infamous hackers of the world would inevitably crack the code. Nevertheless, the molecule -- dubbed FLIP -- houses a core linker that mimics a bacterial compound that binds to iron, and attached to it are two molecules that respectively can glow either blue or green. Using three "buttons," which just so happen to be an acidic molecule, an alkaline compound, and ultraviolet light, the lock can be "opened" if given the right sequence of chemicals and light, and there's a grand total of two noticeable results possible. Interestingly, the researchers have insinuated that their creation could be used to recognize "when certain sequences of chemicals (like harmful toxins) are released in the body," but we haven't heard a 10-4 from the US Army just yet.[Via Yahoo, thanks, Antonio H.]
