Posted on 9. August, 2014.

The problem of how a mixture of chemicals can spontaneously transform themselves into even a simple living organism remains one of the great outstanding challenges to science. Various primordial soup theories have been proposed in which chemical self-organization brings about the required level of complexity.

Posted on 8. August, 2014.

For decades most scientists assumed that life emerged billions of years ago in a “primordial soup” somewhere on the Earth’s surface. Evidence is mounting, however, that life may have begun deep beneath the surface, perhaps near a volcanic ocean vent or even inside the hot crust itself. Since there are hints that life’s history on Earth extends back through the phase of massive cosmic bombardment, it may be that life started on Mars and came here later, perhaps inside rocks ejected from the Red Planet by large impacts.

Posted on 7. August, 2014.

The discovery of cisplatin as an anticancer agent marks the beginning of the upsurge of interest in the use of metal complexes in cancer chemotherapy. However, cisplatin has a narrow spectrum of activity, and its clinical use is limited by undesirable side effects, including nephrotoxicity, ototoxicity, neurotoxicity, nausea, vomiting, and myelosuppression.

Posted on 6. August, 2014.

- 10 million academic articles now included in the initiative -

 Since launching earlier this year, the Access to Research initiative has grown quickly to include the majority of local authorities across England, Scotland and Wales.

Posted on 6. August, 2014.

The Tollens test for aldehydes has been used for over 100 years but no reason has been given for adding sodium hydroxide to the silver nitrate before the solution is cleared with ammonia. In this paper, a mechanism is proposed which explains why the addition of alkali makes the test much more sensitive.

Posted on 5. August, 2014.

Mercury occurs naturally in the environment but anthropogenic sources, such as fossil fuel combustion, non-ferrous metal production and waste incineration, have been suggested to contribute significantly to the mercury contamination

Posted on 4. August, 2014.

Chemical Speciation & Bioavailability covers all aspects of environmental science and pollution.