Researchers in India have calculated that polonium can form hydrogen bonds.1 Polonium is a naturally occurring radioactive element and its compounds engage in soil, marine and environmental chemistry. With Russia curtailing gas supplies to Europe, fracking for shale gas looks set to increase. Fracking could cause the release of polonium compounds into our atmosphere, such […]

A study has provoked debate about whether the ingredients in ancient Chinese recipes for bronze, Jin and Xi, were not pure metals but alloys. This would show that the bronze-making process was more complicated than expected. But the work has been criticised by some experts. They suggest that discrepancies between the recipes and the chemistry […]

Aldehydes can now be used instead of explosive diazo compounds or unstable dihalides to make carbene precursors for over 10 different reaction types. ‘We invented a new, safer way to make carbenes that enables all the unique, valuable reactivity of these compounds without the extra “bang” of unstabilised diazo reagents,’ says study leader David Nagib […]

The cabinets of curiosity featured in the last episode of this series often featured a section containing a mixed collection of stones, minerals, and fossils all thrown together in one category of natural history. This is not surprising when one thinks that the word fossil originally meant anything dug up out of the ground, from […]

There is limited uptake of Covid-19 treatments targeted at immunocompromised people and those who aren’t responsive to Covid-19 vaccines, largely for reasons that remain unclear. Meanwhile, demand for antivirals appears to be slowing, even as manufacturing capacity ramps up. While AstraZeneca’s prophylactic antibody combination Evusheld (tixagevimab and cilgavimab) is available to patients in several countries […]

Researchers have developed an innovative, energy efficient process to purify the three xylene isomers – ortho-, meta– and para-xylene. The method makes use of manganese coordination polymers, a stable and low-cost material that selectively adsorbs, recognises and separates the three molecules, in both vapour and liquid phases. The three xylene isomers ‘have very similar molecular […]

Researchers using advanced laser techniques have unveiled new insights into how carbon–carbon bonds form during catalytic reactions facilitated by transition metal complexes. Migratory insertion is a fundamental reaction mechanism that is often proposed to occur in catalytic cycles to form new chemical bonds selectively and efficiently. It normally occurs when two substrates bound as ligands […]

New light has been shed on the dilemma many female academics face: motherhood or an academic career. US researchers have found that mothers who are academics are significantly more likely than fathers to report that having to care for children has hurt their careers. On the other hand, they found that female academics are less […]

A new electrocatalytic method to produce anilines could offer a more environmentally sustainable way to make these commodity chemicals, widely used to make many products, including herbicides, drugs and dyes. Aniline was first isolated from the plant-derived indigo pigment in 1826 by Otto Unverdorben. But it wasn’t until William Perkin serendipitously discovered the synthetic purple […]

The precise way in which teixobactin, the first promising new antibiotic in decades, kills bacteria has been unravelled. This discovery will help pave the way for further optimisation of this compound and ultimately it’s use in patients. Teixobactin was discovered in 2015 when a new method to culture previously unculturable bacteria was developed. Since then, […]