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New Elements Discovered - Completing the Periodic Table

The elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 have finally been discovered.   Laboratories in Russia, the United States and Japan have made many claims over the  years  that they have discovered them. But it was only at the end of 2015 when the elements were finally given their  permanent  place in the periodic table. A group of scientific experts at  The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina,  announced the group’s conclusions  on 30 December 2015. The four elements were made in the lab, by colliding  lighter atomic nuclei together. The unstable agglomerations of protons and neutrons lasted mere fractions of a second before they fell apart into smaller, more stable fragments. Each of the teams have been given recognition for their great findings which means that now, they can  put forward proposals  to name the new elements and assign them their two-letter symbols. A new element can be named after a range of th

What's in your Pumpkin Spice Latte? ( + A Recipe!)

Autumn is easing its way in and the leaves are turning orange and brown hues and the pumpkin spice latte is making a major comeback. So surely everyone is starting to feel it's autumn now.  The PSL is now the official symbol of autumn - forget the weather or the leaves changing colour. Pumpkin Spice Latte Image Anybody who has tried the PSL and tasted it knows that it doesn’t even taste of pumpkin, nor does it have any of its nutritional benefits.   A cooked, mashed cup of it has most, if not all of your daily vitamin A and a significant percentage of both your daily potassium and fibre. Recently, the autumnal drink has been in the news for its recipe, which doesn't include real pumpkin or real, natural flavours. All flavours are replaced with chemicals which make up the flavouring. The caffeinated drink now has pumpkin included in it as of this year, part of the recipe.   In between a yoga retreat and a vision quest, I made a big decision to use real pumpkin. My

FDA Approves 1st Drug Produced By 3D Printing

For years, scientists have been searching for a way to simplify the way drugs are made, making everything computerised, with minimal human interaction as possible.  Previously I have reported on a new technology called molecular printing, click HERE  to read it first. Now for the first time, the FDA has approved the first prescription drug made via the new and similar technique: 3D printing.

The Chemistry of Anti-ageing Products & How They Work

On the back of any container of anti-ageing serum or cream, you read a long incomprehensible list of chemicals that you might not know what their exact roles are within the product. Below is list a top 10 ingredients that have been used in anti-ageing products that are in the market today, for you to read and know what exactly contributes to removing years of our faces.

New research for more efficient carbon capture

Journal : Tuning Organic Carbon Dioxide Absorbents for Carbonation and Decarbonation : Dr's: Kim, Park &   Rajamanickam Funded by Ministry of Education. Science and Technology of the Korean Government Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is a gas / waste product that is given off by motor engines and with it other harmful gases that affect us and affect pollution and air quality. In this new piece of research the trio of scientists have aimed to find a way to capture carbon and recycle it, from carbon dioxide and at the same time release the safe molecule oxygen (O 2 ). In their research the scientists have aimed to manipulate the unique chemistry of super bases for carbon capture technology. It is beneficial to be able to control the process of carbonation and decarbonation in an easily controllable manner. ·          Superbase = alkylcarbonyl salt ·          Reverse at elevated temperatures in organic solutions ·          Gives insight into the design and optimizat

Black Phosphorus is the New Silicon

New Chemistry research:  Black phosphorus could help engineers surmount one of the big challenges for future electronics: designing energy-efficient transistors. This is a schematic of the "puckered honeycomb" crystal structure of black phosphorus. Credit: Vahid Tayari/McGill University Published in the journal: Nature Communications , the researchers are utilising black phosphorus as a material to pack more transistors on a chip, making them more energy-efficient.  The work is a result of a multidisciplinary collaboration among Szkopek's nanoelectronics research group, the nanoscience lab of McGill Physics Prof. Guillaume Gervais, and the nanostructures research group of Prof. Richard Martel in Université de Montréal's Department of Chemistry. Reporting on their finds, the scientists at McGill University, have found that when electrons move in a phosphorus transistor, they do so only in two dimensions. This will help in designing new energy-efficient t