Chemistry Astrochemistry

Sticky life beginnings. Precarious pitcher plant, Breaking the cobalt "cage", Toxic algae killer & “Pure-bred” stem cell medium. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice. Plus Asia Research News 2026 is out now and SciCom Coffee talk by Rachael Smith at Wellcome Sanger Institute.

Surface-bound gels may have provided the structure and chemistry for life to take root on Earth, and perhaps beyond

Asteroid contains life’s building blocks, How fish detect color, Eco-friendly artificial muscles, Cell imaging gets a glow-up, Quantum gem, Healing skin with milkfish. Plus the 2025 Magazine is here, Read all in the latest Editor's Choice.

Japanese collaborators detected all five nucleobases — building blocks of DNA and RNA — in samples returned from asteroid Bennu by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.

Lab-based studies reveal how carbon atoms diffuse on the surface of interstellar ice grains to form complex organic compounds, crucial to reveal the chemical complexity in the universe.

A group of researchers from universities in Thailand and Malaysia have collaborated to develop a unique kind of film that is good for the environment and can decompose naturally. They made this film using leftover pineapple stems, which helps reduce the use of harmful plastic films. This new film has the potential to be used as packaging material, contributing to a more sustainable way of doing business and promoting a circular economy.

Muon non-destructive analysis of Asteroid Ryugu revealed the raw materials of solid matter at the outer regions of the early solar system. The samples contain less oxygen relative to silicon than typical CI chondrites, indicating that previous CI chondrite samples may have been contaminated by terrestrial materials, thus redefining the standard elemental composition of solid materials in the solar system.