Museum of Science and Industry

Earlier in National Chemistry Week, we mentioned this year's Nobel winners for chemistry and their work on the body's receptors for fear and other signals. Just in time for Halloween, here's more on how your system handles scares …

If you’re like me (and most other living creatures), you don’t like being scared. Since it is a survival mechanism, fear is designed to be unpleasant. It activates our emotions and puts our bodies on high alert. Ever wonder what is really happening inside your body...

Heads up, science lovers: after decades of struggle, the world’s first practical maser has been built! What’s a maser, you ask? It’s like a laser, except instead of light, it produces a coherent beam of microwaves! Aaaah!

Masers have been around for over 50 years, but they needed special conditions (such as extreme cold) to work. Even then, the old masers still did not produce much...

The HIV pandemic has threatened the health of men and women across the globe for over 30 years. Why, in this age of advanced medical technology, has the HIV virus has thwarted traditional methods of vaccination? The AIDS Vaccine 2012 conference, which just wrapped in Boston yesterday, focused on bringing new minds and ideas to this very question.

Some of the reasons include HIV’s ability to...

Our modern world depends on the production of electrical power, but transmitting that electricity from power plants to our homes is such a schlep! Wouldn’t it be nice if we could simply harvest the forms of energy that surround us in our everyday environment?

Scientists at MIT have created

You know what I love about plants? Their work ethic. Plants are consistently photosynthesizing to transform sunlight, water, and CO2 into chemical energy.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could use these same materials to make energy for ourselves? Well, hold on to your chloroplasts – because now we can!

A team of chemists recently achieved artificial photosynthesis by using a catalyst made from the metal ruthenium (Ru) and organic molecules. Their reaction takes water and CO2 and converts them into...