Nitrenes are the ghosts of synthetic chemistry, formed in an instant and gone just as quickly, rearranging into something ...

Organic molecular crystals can respond to external stimuli such as heat, light, and mechanical force, making them attractive ...

If you memorized the periodic table, if you whipped up exothermic reactions in your kitchen, Wenting Zhu and Yan Liang are here to renew your relationship with the elements. To generate the images in ...

Imagine industrial processes that make materials or chemical compounds faster, cheaper, and with fewer steps than ever before. Imagine processing information in your laptop in seconds instead of ...

Crystal polymorphism is critically important in the fields of pharmaceuticals and materials science. For instance, a metastable polymorph of an active pharmaceutical ingredient may benefit from ...

In a surprising twist, researchers have identified crystals that are symmetrical but nevertheless absorb light as if they were chiral (Science 2025, DOI: 10.1126/science.adr5478). The discovery ...

The people at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History were nice enough to give a couple members of the Chemistry in Pictures team a behind-the-scenes look at their mineral ...

Almost every material expands when heated. Well-known examples include railroad tracks and concrete roadways, which feature visible expansion gaps to accommodate this effect. However, thermal ...

Going back through time, cultures around the world—from ancient Sumer to Indus Valley, China, and South America—have believed crystals could evoke a kind of sorcery, conjure change, and heal disease.