Kids love to eat cheese sticks. Parents love cheese sticks because they are portable and easy to serve, though the fact that the individually wrapped servings require more packaging than a big block of cheese may evoke twinges of environmental guilt. Now cheese sticks are even better for all as one company is making the [...]

After more than 20 years of delays, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its non-cancer science assessment for dioxins. The assessment establishes the first reference dose for dioxin exposure, and concludes that current exposures do not pose a significant health risk. Dioxins are chemical byproducts that are released into the air from burning [...]

Africa is moving away from importing all of its plastic goods as numerous companies decide to put manufacturing facilities on the continent. Indian companies are particularly interested, reports Steve Toloken in Plastics News. He spoke with various executives at Indian plastics companies, and writes: As Africa’s plastics industry grows, Indian companies say they are picking [...]

Gecko lizards love hanging out on surfaces that are vertical or even tilt backwards. A super-sticky adhesive on their feet allows them to hold such poses without leaving a residue. For decades, biologists and polymer chemists have tried to understand and replicate, respectively, its remarkable sticking power. Now, a team at the University of Massachusetts, [...]

Scientists at the Center for Layered Polymeric Systems at Case Western University have developed a unique process called forced assembly that creates alternating nanometer-thick layers of polymers. The scientists are developing various applications for the technology, ranging from new kinds of lenses to better packaging for food, medicine, and electronics to tunable lasers, writes Marlene [...]

Most polymers are one-dimensional. They are created with linearly repeating units bonded together to form a chain, though the structures may have some branching or irregular crosslinking. Now, researchers in the U.S. and Switzerland have used organic synthesis to design an ordered, 2D polymer, according to a statement from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials [...]

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have reported a tandem solar cell with record-breaking power efficiency. The cell has a unique structure that incorporates a new infrared-absorbing polymer material to use more of the solar spectrum, according to a statement from UCLA. Photovoltaic solar cells use conductive organic polymers to absorb sunlight and [...]