Letters to a Young Chemist

19/08/2026

Over a century ago, attitudes towards homosexuality began to change. A researcher has explored how Norwegian nature helped convey this shift in literature. Presented by NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

(Link to the article below, in the comments.👇)

19/08/2026

Major insight into the homochirality of narwhal tusks:

Narwhal tusks are macroscopically helical and chiral. This structure originates from left- and right-handed helices of tusk nanostructural components. The double helix creates a straight, mechanically stable tusk with highly anisotropic mechanical properties.

14/08/2026

Tenacious and confounding, the horseshoe crab pre-dates dinosaurs and has copper-based blood vital to vaccine safety

12/08/2026

Life on Earth is thought to have emerged from the primordial ooze some four billion years ago. Now a provocative new study argues that this miraculous transition from chemistry to biology happened not once but twice.

According to the study, bacteria and archaea, the first two branches of the tree of life, each sprung separately. http://spklr.io/6001EREu9

11/08/2026

Simple reaction allows access to wide range of fluorinated molecules, without using hazardous hydrogen fluoride

11/08/2026

11/08/2026

In 1876, Josiah Willard Gibbs published an equation that would transform chemistry - yet barely anyone noticed at the time. The story of his phase rule is one of delayed recognition, mathematical abstraction and enduring scientific legacy

11/08/2026

The beady-eyed, Pokémon-like leaf sheep is far more ingenious than us land mammals

07/08/2026

A lot of the controversies around identity politics could be averted by focusing more on class/economics as opposed to gender or race.

A database of 85,000 syllabi reveals a striking blind spot.

07/08/2026

Beginning in the 1950s, malaria control programs sprayed a powerful insecticide known as dieldrin on the inside walls of homes, where Anopheles mosquitoes—the insects that spread the disease—often rested. Within a few years the bugs had developed a genetic mutation that made them impervious to the poison.

Dieldrin was eventually abandoned as resistance spread and concerns mounted over its toxicity. But the story didn’t end there.

Decades later, the mosquitoes have held onto one of the mutations that helped them survive the pesticide, despite the fact it makes them less active. A new study may explain why: The mutation appears to make Anopheles mosquitoes more sensitive to sound, which may make it easier for them to home in on mates in noisy African cities, researchers report.

What once helped the insects avoid death may now be helping them find mates. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4fDqODn