All articles by Philip Ball – Page 13
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OpinionThe founding myths of chemistry
Chemists should learn from the past, says Philip Ball, but they may need a history lesson first
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OpinionMake or break: the laws of motion
Molecular machinery involves a delicate interplay of forces, but biology has found the balance, says Philip Ball
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FeatureUp in the air
Lithium–air batteries hold the promise of great enough power density to fuel cars – but has their progress stalled in recent years? Philip Ball finds out
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ResearchBright idea to probe bond order
An IBM team has used atomic force microscopy to reveal the lengths and orders of C–C bonds in buckyballs and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
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OpinionThe automatic chemist
Philip Ball considers the creation of a collective chemical brain, and what it might dream up
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Research
Getting under water's skin
Researchers think they might have an answer to why water's surface tension isn't as great as it ought to be
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FeatureBig troubles over tiny bubbles
Conventional wisdom suggests that nanosized bubbles should barely exist at all, so their stability for hours or days has surprised many. Philip Ball takes a close look at these minute miracles
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Research
Polymer replacement for the hydration shell
New work on liquid proteins casts doubt on the on the essentiality of the hydration sphere for protein function
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Opinion
Nullius in verba
Philip Ball asks how much of the published literature you should believe. Not much, by some accounts
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FeatureTuring patterns
Code-cracker Alan Turing’s impact on chemistry is still being realised today, a century after his birth. Philip Ball investigates
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Opinion
Breaking the surface?
Philip Ball is perplexed by the EPSRC’s decision to cut surface science funding
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Opinion
Skin deep science
Philip Ball takes a critical look at the science behind an anti-ageing cream and discovers there's some truth in its sugar-coated claims
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Opinion
A packed dancefloor
To understand the chemical choreography of the cell, we must acknowledge the bustling biomolecular ballroom in which it takes place, says Philip Ball