The vast majority of the things we see, touch and use in our everyday lives are derived from petroleum, which provides the chemical building blocks for countless consumer staples. We have, however, ...

WOULD YOU like the vanilla in your custard to come from a field of lovely orchids or a barrel of wood pulp? The second option may not seem as appetising, but synthetic vanillin, as vanilla’s ...

The basic molecules that make up all living things have a predetermined chirality or "handedness," similar to the way people are right or left handed. This chirality has a profound influence on the ...

Increasing food production to feed a growing population is one of the world’s greatest challenges. And Kenichiro Itami is on a mission to bring chemistry to the fight. Itami is the director of the ...

Our biological clock regulates various daily rhythms, such as sleep/wake rhythm, body temperature, and metabolism. Disruption of the circadian rhythm may lead to sleep disorders, cancer and other ...

The central dogma of molecular biology holds that DNA gets transcribed into RNA, which then gets translated into proteins. Of course, there are exceptions—some viruses, like coronaviruses, forego DNA ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 78, No. 1, [Part 2: Biological Sciences] (Jan., 1981), pp. 524-528 (5 pages) Several biological effector functions ...