As the world looks for ways to stop climate change, much discussion focuses on using hydrogen instead of fossil fuels, which emit climate-warming greenhouse gases (GHGs) when they're burned. The idea is appealing. Burning hydrogen doesn't emit GHGs to the atmosphere, and hydrogen is well-suited for a variety of uses, notably as a replacement for natural gas in industrial processes, power generation, and home heating. But while burning hydrogen won't emit GHGs, any hydrogen that's leaked from pipelines or storage or fueling facilities can indirectly cause climate change by affecting other compounds that are GHGs, including tropospheric ozone and methane, with methane impacts being the dominant effect. A much-cited 2022 modeling study analyzing hydrogen's effects on chemical compounds in the atmosphere concluded that these climate impacts could be considerable. With funding from the MIT Energy Initiative's Future Energy Systems Center, a team of MIT researchers took a more detailed look at the specific chemistry that poses the risks of using hydrogen as a fuel if it leaks....

Troy Van Voorhis, the Robert T. Haslam and Bradley Dewey Professor of Chemistry, will step down as department head of the Department of Chemistry at the end of this academic year. Van Voorhis has served as department head since 2019, previously serving the department as associate department head since 2015. 'Troy has been an invaluable partner and sounding board who could always be counted on for a wonderful mix of wisdom and pragmatism,' says Nergis Mavalvala, the Kathleen and Curtis Marble professor of astrophysics and dean of the MIT School of Science. 'While department head, Troy provided calm guidance during the Covid pandemic, encouraging and financially supporting additional programs to improve his community's quality of life.' 'I have had the pleasure of serving as head of our department for the past five-plus years. It has been a period of significant upheaval in our world,' says Van Voorhis. 'Throughout it all, one of my consistent joys has been the privilege of working within the chemistry department and across the wider MIT community on research, education, and community building.'...

Chemists have shown it is possible to use mass spectrometry ' a technique commonly used to identify molecules by mass ' to separate chiral molecules, those that exist as different forms with identical atoms but mirror-image structures that can't be superimposed on each other. The technique, described today in Science1, could one day have applications in drug discovery. The different versions of chiral molecules ' called enantiomers ' often have very different properties. The drug thalidomide showed this to tragic effect: one enantiomer is a sedative, but the other causes congenital disabilities when taken during pregnancy. As a result, separating enantiomers is a crucial part of drug discovery, but it is often laborious. Current methods require specialist equipment and different protocols for each pair of enantiomers. The researchers put pairs of these propeller-shaped molecules into a mass spectrometer, where they were vaporized, ionized and transported to a component called an ion-trap mass analyser. The team then applied alternating currents to the ions, sending each enantiomer spinning on a slightly different path, on the basis of its chirality....

Gluten is a complex mixture of proteins. It makes up 85%-90% of the protein in flour. Proteins are natural biological macromolecules composed of chains of amino acids that fold upon themselves to adopt a variety of shapes. Gluten comes from the endosperm of wheat, rye, barley and related plants. The endosperm is a tissue in the plant's seeds that serves as a storage location for starch and protein. The milling process that creates flour releases the contents of the endosperm, including gluten. The main proteins in the gluten mixture are gliadin and glutenin. These proteins make up much of flour-based food products' structure. During the kneading or mixing part of making dough, these proteins form an elastic mesh, often referred to as the gluten network. Forming a gluten network is key for getting dough to rise. The network acts as a balloon that traps gases during the rising, proofing and baking processes. During rising and proofing, when the dough is given time to expand, yeast in the dough releases carbon dioxide as it eats and digests the sugars present. This process is called fermentation....