Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or "forever chemicals," have become persistent pollutants in the air, water and soil. Because they are so stable, they can be transported throughout the water cycle, making their way into drinking water sources and precipitation.

Disk-related back pain may one day meet its therapeutic match: Gene therapy delivered by naturally derived nanocarriers that, a new study shows, repairs damaged disks in the spine and lowers pain symptoms in mice.

Vanilla extract is one of the most widely used flavoring compounds in food products and cosmetics. The pleasant and sweet smell of this classic flavor is imparted by the chemical compound "vanillin" found in the seed pods of vanilla plants belonging to the orchid family. In plants, vanillin is synthesized by the conversion of ferulic acid by the enzyme—VpVAN. However, laboratory biosynthesis of vanillin from plant-derived VpVAN yields only very small quantities of vanillin, and is, therefore, commercially impractical.

Between 5 and 21% emission reductions: this is the empirically measured effect of carbon pricing systems in their first few years of operation. A research team now identifies these findings for 17 real-world climate policies around the globe, condensing the state of knowledge more comprehensively than ever. The team uses artificial intelligence to collate existing surveys, making them comparable using a novel calculation concept.

Perovskites are currently a hot topic in materials science due to their remarkable properties and potential applications, including sustainable energy technologies, catalysis, and optoelectronics, to name a few.

By kindergarten age, most children have been taught that "please" is a magic word. "Please" is an expression of politeness that shows courtesy and respect, turning a potential demand into a request that will—poof!—magically be granted.

Just as the US economy runs on the dollar, the cellular economy runs on adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The energy-carrying molecule fuels nearly all processes inside the cell, making ATP critical for cellular life.

Sea otters are one of the few animals that use tools to access their food, and a new study has found that individual sea otters that use tools—most of whom are female—are able to eat larger prey and reduce tooth damage when their preferred prey becomes depleted.

Organic solid-state lasers (OSLs) hold immense promise for a wide range of applications due to their flexibility, color tunability, and efficiency. However, they are difficult to make, and with over 150,000 possible experiments required to conduct to find successful new materials, discovering them all would be the work of several lifetimes. In fact, in the previous few decades, only 10–20 new OSL materials have been tested.

A team of chemists from the University of Vienna, led by Nuno Maulide, has achieved a significant breakthrough in the field of chemical synthesis, developing a novel method for manipulating carbon-hydrogen bonds. This discovery provides new insights into the molecular interactions of positively charged carbon atoms.