Swedish researchers have discovered a new source of silver. It isn’t a silver mine ? it’s Pseudomonas stutzeri, a kind of bacteria that lives in silver mines and produces minute crystals of silver. The discovery is especially surprising because silver is highly toxic to most microbes. But P. stutzeri get around this problem by gathering up the silver and [...]

Biochips? computer chips attached to and somehow controlling living cells? have existed in the imaginations of science-fiction writers for years. Thus, it was perhaps understandable that research by Professor Stephen Boxer and graduate student Jay Groves, chemists at Stanford University, in collaboration with Stanford electrical engineer Nick Ulman, would cause a degree of excitement in [...]

Which do you prefer, paper or plastic? Natural fibers like cotton and wool, or high-tech synthetics like microfleece?
Either way, you may welcome a new polymer developed by Cargill Dow Polymers. The company, a joint venture between Cargill Inc. and Dow Chemical Company, has developed a technology called NatureWorksTM to manufacture plastic from plants such as corn [...]