EurekAlert! News by Subject: Chemistry & Physics - News by Subject: Chemistry & Physics

Chemistry & Physics

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Aug-2025 20:11 ET (22-Aug-2025 00:11 GMT/UTC)

11-Aug-2025

More types of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in Sydney tap water than previously thought

University of New South Wales
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A UNSW analysis of Sydney water has found at least 31 PFAS chemicals, including 21 not previously recorded in Australian tap water, and one detected in tap water globally for the first time.

Journal: Chemosphere
Funder: Australian Research Council

11-Aug-2025

Semaglutide or tirzepatide and optic nerve and visual pathway disorders in type 2 diabetes

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: In this study of patients with type 2 diabetes who had no prior eye disorders, patients prescribed semaglutide or tirzepatide had an increased risk of nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy and other optic nerve disorders, although the overall risk was low. These findings highlight the need for close monitoring of these conditions.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

11-Aug-2025

Research update: PFAS found in several reusable period products

American Chemical Society
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or forever chemicals, are being identified in more places. Period products are on that list, likely because of the resistance to stains and liquids conferred by these chemicals. Building on previously presented research, a team publishing in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters found that some reusable products, namely period underwear and reusable pads, contained PFAS, which might be absorbed into the body through skin contact.

Journal: Environmental Science & Technology Letters

11-Aug-2025

This chemical trick could turn losing malaria drug into a winner

University of California - San Francisco
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The search for new ways to treat malaria — a disease that kills some 600,000 people a year, most of them children in Sub-Saharan Africa — may have just gotten a boost.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health

11-Aug-2025

New £13m nuclear program to boost UK energy security through sustainable graphite innovation

University of Plymouth
Grant and Award Announcement

A consortium of UK universities - led by the University of Manchester in collaboration with the University of Oxford, University of Plymouth and Loughborough University - has been awarded a major grant for a programme that will transform the lifecycle of graphite in nuclear energy - an essential material for the future deployment of nuclear power.

Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

11-Aug-2025

Kennesaw State physics professor receives three-year grant to create simulations for particle colliders

Kennesaw State University
Grant and Award Announcement

A Kennesaw State University researcher recieved a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, one of 40 awarded nationally. KSU’s computing infrastructure, thanks largely to the Center for Research Computing and computing resources in the Department of Physics, also helps foster the research, which will lead to bigger and better projects on a national level. The Brookhaven National Laboratory is building a particle collider to complement the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland, and KSU’s research will contribute toward its development.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

11-Aug-2025

Boosting fuel cell efficiency with water vapor

Institute of Science Tokyo
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Hydration significantly boosts ion conductivity in Ba₇Nb₄MoO₂₀, a promising ceramic electrolyte candidate for low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells. But its origin and mobile ionic species were unresolved issues. Researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo found that exposure to water vapor enhances oxide-ion mobility by increasing interstitial oxygen ions, nearly doubling the oxide-ion conductivity at 500 °C. The findings of this study could advance the development of efficient and durable fuel cells for clean energy applications.

Journal: Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Science and Technology Agency, European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme