Bending light and opening markets
MATERIALS
It has been more than a decade since materials scientists captured headlines for their attempts to mimic Harry Potter’s celebrated invisibility cloak by creating...
Read More >>McMaster technology takes stock of valuable medical metal
MEDICINE
An innovative device developed at McMaster University could answer some of the key questions that have been fueling controversy amongst radiologists about the safety of some...
Read More >>Enhancing the nobility of metal processing
MECHANOCHEMISTRY
The images from villages in Africa or Asia resemble a 21st-century Dickensian nightmare: open air cottage industries, ostensibly dedicated to the virtuous purpose of recycling, rely on harsh combinations
Read More >>Buy-out boosts blue biotechnology
BIOTECHNOLOGY
A multinational speciality chemical firm’s purchase of a small University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) spin-off enterprise represents a major step forward in the business...
Read More >>CO2 and the cyclic economy
CATALYSIS
University of Toronto doctoral student Phil De Luna has always liked the idea of carbon sequestration, but he acknowledges that it needs some help.
Read More >>Inviting researchers to resolve the weak link in 3D printing
MANUFACTURING
The federal government has put out a call for researchers to work on a major problem in additive manufacturing...
Read More >>National network backs eastern Ontario fire-fighting start-up
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) is making a strategic investment in FireRein Inc., a small firm that has been introducing Canada’s fire-fighting community to Eco-Gel, a new, environmentally benign fire-suppression...
Read More >>Small numbers address some bigger questions
RADIOISOTOPES
In the seven years since a tsunami demolished three Fukushima Daiichi reactors in Japan, the radioactive isotopes that spread from this event to Canada’s west coast have dwindled to levels that can only...
Read More >>Assessing the aging of aerosols
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
Our planet’s lower atmosphere is one very busy place, chemically speaking, as climate researchers have discovered. They are developing a new appreciation of complex processes such as cloud formation and radiative forcing, which determines how much light from the sun can reach the earth’s surface and how much heat can escape.
Read More >>Is diesel’s dirty reputation for pollution undeserved?
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
Which is cleaner, diesel or gasoline? It’s a complex question. While diesel emits more greenhouse gases per gallon, it is also more energy dense and can result in greater fuel economy, lowering emissions...
Read More >>Revealing the knotty roots of natural products
NATURAL PRODUCTS CHEMISTRY
Naturally occurring complex molecules make attractive research targets, especially if they have some compelling property like antibiotic behaviour. University of British Columbia chemistry professor Katherine Ryan...
Read More >>Rubbing a venerable polymer the right way
POLYMERS
Rubber polymers have been capturing the attention of chemists and the wider public since at least 1770, when pioneering chemist Joseph Priestley coined the term for a material that could remove lead pencil marks from paper.
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