Hydrogen is widely viewed as a promising clean energy carrier, but storing and transporting it efficiently remains a major challenge. Methanol offers an attractive alternative because it is liquid under ambient conditions, contains a high proportion of hydrogen, and can be converted into hydrogen when needed. Now, researchers have uncovered how different oxygen species on catalyst surfaces control this conversion process, offering new guidance for designing more efficient catalysts for hydrogen production.

Young scientists who frequently handle laboratory chemicals and consume relatively few antioxidant-rich foods may be more likely to report symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, pallor, and easy bruising, according to a new study of university students in Nigeria.

Epigenetics researchers at SickKids develop tissue-agnostic model that can classify uncertain genetic variants for children with rare disorders and their families. 

A new computer model inspired by ant behavior is helping scientists to better understand what launches and shapes patterns of collective movement and rest.

NJIT professor Gennady Gor recently earned a grant from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for new experiments with synthetic polymers.

In the midwestern summer, humans and plants have to breathe through the heat and humidity. Researchers hope that a retooled crop plant—one with an improved ventilation system within its leaves—could thrive while avoiding drought stress by reducing “crop sweat”. Thanks to a next generation imaging technology powered by Argonne National Laboratory’s particle collider beamline, a team of scientists now has precise schematics of the leaf’s interior and can refine approaches to breeding hardier crop plants.

The research, published in Plant Physiology, was led by postdoctoral researcher James Fischer in the laboratory of Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences Andrew Leakey at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Their work represents the first detailed look at how the pores on the leaf surfaces of sorghum, a highly productive and resilient grass crop, connect to the air pathways, photosynthetic centers, and veins beneath.

Researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, used a machine-learning approach to study not just which genes a bacterium has, but also where those genes sit next to each other. That “genetic neighborhood” helped researchers distinguish disease-causing strains of Enterococcus cecorum, a poultry pathogen, from nonpathogenic strains. The same approach could eventually be applied to bacteria affecting humans, livestock, wildlife and plants, provided enough genomic data are available.