chemistry

Research

Artificial leaf uses sunlight to capture carbon and produce valuable chemicals

A team led by chemist Peidong Yang built a device that converts carbon dioxide into compounds that are precursors to many valuable products, from plastic polymers to jet fuel.

a close-up image of an Egyptian blue lotus being held by hands with black gloves

Research

Investigating the psychedelic blue lotus of Egypt, where ancient magic meets modern science

purple-gloved fingers hold a glass vial with black liquid at the bottom

Research

Chemists create new molecular compound from Berkeley’s eponymous element, Berkelium

smiling woman in lab looking into camera

Awards

UC Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna receives National Medal of Technology and Innovation

white vapor emerging from flaring concrete towers

Breakthrough in capturing ‘hot’ CO2 from industrial exhaust

stacks of blue balls forming a hollow hexagonal tube with orange and blue balls floating around it

Capturing carbon from the air just got easier

a man in blue shirt with tousled hair stands in front of a whiteboard

David Baker, a UC Berkeley Ph.D., awarded 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

a bearded man wearing goggles adjust equipment inside a fume hood

New process vaporizes plastic bags and bottles, yielding gases to make new, recycled plastics

an orange slice of bread and an orange liquid in a white bowl being topped with a drop of amber liquid from a pipette

Can fungi turn food waste into the next culinary sensation?

side by side portraits of a woman and a man

UC Berkeley neuroscientist and nanoscientist among this year’s Kavli Prize winners

a charging cord inserted into the port of a white electric drive car

EVs are lowering Bay Area’s carbon footprint

small device sitting on rocks in the desert

Portable sun-powered water harvester could combat water scarcity

a bright white sun sits over a dark green collection of plants

Photosynthesis, key to life on Earth, starts with a single photon

blue, pink and magenta figures illustrating the ribosome translation of mRNA into protein

Retooling the translation machine could expand the chemical repertoire of cells

Susan Marqusee with scarf, red hair and glasses

Chemist Susan Marqusee takes leading role at National Science Foundation

National Academy of Sciences elects seven from UC Berkeley

All chemistry