Just as spacesuits help astronauts survive in inhospitable environments, newly developed “spacesuits” for bacteria allow them to survive in environments that would otherwise kill them. University of California, Berkeley, chemists developed the protective suits to extend the bacteria’s lifespan in a unique system that pairs live bacteria with light-absorbing semiconductors in order to capture carbon…

Scientists have bombarded hydrogen with 168 powerful laser beams — part of the world’s largest laser, the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — to reproduce what happens to the gas under the intense pressures at the cores of giant planets. What they saw confirms predictions that if you keep hydrogen cool enough…

The discovery of buckyballs surprised and delighted chemists in the 1980s, nanotubes jazzed physicists in the 1990s, and graphene charged up materials scientists in the 2000s, but one nanoscale carbon structure — a negatively curved surface called a schwarzite — has eluded everyone. Until now. UC Berkeley chemists have proved that three carbon structures recently…

Scientists are experimenting with narrow strips of graphene, called nanoribbons, in hopes of making cool new electronic devices, but University of California, Berkeley scientists have discovered another possible role for them: as nanoscale electron traps with potential applications in quantum computers. Graphene, a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a rigid, honeycomb lattice resembling chicken…

University of California, Berkeley engineers have built the first dust-sized, wireless sensors that can be implanted in the body, bringing closer the day when a Fitbit-like device could monitor internal nerves, muscles, or organs in real time. Because these batteryless sensors could also be used to stimulate nerves and muscles, the technology also opens the…