Scientists know iron oxide minerals store large amounts of carbon in soils, but lack a detailed, quantitative understanding of the specific chemical mechanisms that allow them to bind such a wide ...

Researchers have detected organic compounds and minerals necessary for life in unprecedented samples collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, adding evidence to the idea that asteroids likely ...

Samples brought back to Earth from asteroid "Bennu" in 2023 have been found to contain crucial building blocks for life—including amino acids and all five DNA and RNA nucleobases. The findings, ...

Tim McCoy, right, and Cari Corrigan, meteorite researchers at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, look at images of asteroid Bennu samples taken by a scanning electron microscope.

Phytates may affect your body's ability to absorb some minerals. But you don't need to avoid these foods. Foods that are high in phytates have gotten a bad rap on social media and the compounds have ...

Other compounds, like ribonucleotides, are first drawn to ferrihydrite by electrostatic attraction and then go on to form much stronger chemical bonds with iron atoms. And sugars, which form the ...

Non-uniform distribution of charges on the surface of iron oxides attracts diverse types of organic compounds through mechanisms with different binding energies. While scientists have long known that ...