Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are tiny carbon-based nanomaterials that have attracted increasing attention as environmentally ...

A new global study is offering a clearer view of how some of the world’s most valuable mineral deposits form, tracing their ...

Where would carbon-based life be without carbon? There are 118 known chemical elements, but carbon is the fourth most abundant and perhaps the most important to human life. Everywhere you look, ...

When scientists search for extraterrestrial life, they invariably focus on the sixth element on the periodic table: Carbon. "I don't think even most humans have much self-awareness, let alone bacteria ...

A small but mighty microbe that can safely extract the rare earth and other critical elements for building everything from satellites to solar panels has another superpower: capturing carbon dioxide.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Using NASA’s Spitzer Telescope, an international research team has found evidence that some stars in the center of the Milky Way galaxy have both carbon and oxygen in the dust that ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American Robert Hazen is one of five expert speakers ...

After two decades of debate, scientists are getting closer to figuring out exactly what the sun — and thus the whole universe — is made of. The sun is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. There are ...