When analyzing fatty residues absorbed by 6000-year old pots has revealed a historical menu that challenges widely held views on European civilization's development. Oliver Craig, from the University of York, and his colleagues investigated vessels from Danish sites where humans used pottery before and after becoming farmers. Pre-farming pottery use is unusual in Europe, and allowed Craig's team to examine the theory that like fishing were completely dropped when agriculture was adopted.

Lipids from food stored or cooked in unglazed cooking pots can be trapped in the ceramic matrix and preserved for hundreds of years. Craig's team were able to extract lipid residues in microgram amounts from the ceramic and characterise them using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry techniques. The researchers studied isotope ratios found in carbonised surface deposits on 100 of 220 vessels recovered from the Danish sites. They also investigated isotopic and structural characteristics of absorbed lipids preserved in 133 vessels.  

Current News

New insights into the physical properties of different forms of DNA could help to improve gene therapy, chemists in Spain and India say. Gene therapy aims to cure disease by inserting functional genes into the DNA of living cells, but delivering the DNA into the cell remains a stumbling block. Emilio Aicar, Santanu Bhattacharya and colleagues say that their findings can explain why some types of DNA can transfect cells more efficiently than others. 

Gene therapy was pioneered using viruses to deliver DNA into cells. However, viral vectors have a number of drawbacks which limit their use for in vivo therapeutic gene delivery, not least their interactions with the host organism's immune system. Synthetic delivery vehicles might be able to get around these problems. 

Plants for Energy?

(Symbol for energy)

One of the biggest obstacles to widespread use of solar energy is the lack of a low-cost, effective way to store it when the sun is not shining. To get around this, two MIT chemists have devised a method of hoarding solar energy that functionally mimics what plants do during photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, plants convert solar energy into chemical form. A key aspect of this process involves splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen. The oxygen is given off, and the hydrogen is ultimately incorporated into sugars that the plant stores as fuel.

Project w/ clay

2 Heaviest Metals Added to Periodic Table

The unnamed elements 114 and 116 are both extremely radioactive and, with respective atomic mass unit values of 289 and 292, are now heaviest table-members.Scientists from the international overseeing committees of physics and chemistry have added two new elements to the periodic table. A joint effort  by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) required three years to approve the addition. Other periodic table hopefuls 113, 115 and 118 are still pending approval.Physics and chemistry have added two new elements to the periodic table. A joint effort.  The elements are temporarily labeled ununquadium and ununhexium, pending final naming.

Relationship Among Elements