Navigating the treat-filled holiday season is challenging, but the new year brings opportunities to make improvements to your daily routine — hence the shiny, new gym membership. Unfortunately, resolutions are often short lived. While numerous studies have tried to identify the silver bullet to get people to make long-lasting change in their exercise routines, most […]

People hoping to get in shape and eat healthier this year may want to try Volumetrics, the diet plan that was ranked No. 1 among weight-loss diets for 2022 by U.S. News & World Report. The plan, which emphasizes foods that are low in calorie density, was developed by Barbara Rolls, Helen A. Guthrie Chair […]

This article was originally published on 28 October 2020. Picture this: You’ve experienced no physical sensation beyond your wrists for years, then a doctor drapes a thin, flexible membrane over your hand and, like magic, you can feel the trickle of water through your fingers again. This may sound like an outlandish scenario, but it’s […]

Scientists in Canada have united mechanochemistry with repurposed lab equipment to develop a new synthesis and crystallisation process. It is scalable and efficient, uses little to no solvent and combines the crystallisation and drying processes, so could benefit the pharmaceutical industry by saving it time and money when making active pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as […]

A number of researchers have featured in the UK’s 2022 New Year’s Honours list, recognising their contributions to science. Nazira Karodia from Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Nottingham’s Robert Mokaya were both honoured for their ‘services to the chemical sciences’, with Karodia receiving an MBE and Mokaya an OBE. The University of York’s […]

The conviction of Elizabeth Holmes, the former chief executive and founder of failed blood-testing startup Theranos, on four charges of defrauding investors out of millions of dollars has had reverberations for analytical chemistry, the field of blood monitoring and beyond. On 3 January, a jury found Holmes guilty of three counts of wire fraud and […]

A microorganism capable of converting oil into methane has been cultivated by researchers in Germany, China and Spain. The single-celled organism, an archaeon called Candidatus methanoliparum, breaks down oil into methane and carbon dioxide. Unlike other archaea that live on short-chain hydrocarbons like ethane or butane, methanoliparium prefers heavy oil and its long-chain compounds. The microbe […]

Continuing our look at the group of mathematician astronomers associated with Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637) in Provence and Marin Mersenne (1588–1648) in Paris, we turn today to Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655), celebrated in the world of Early Modern philosophy, as the man who succeeded in making Epicurean atomism acceptable to the Catholic Church.  Pierre Gassendi Source: Wikimedia […]

The discovery of insulin 100 years ago opened a door that would lead to life and hope for millions of people with diabetes. Ever since then, insulin, produced in the pancreas, has been considered the primary means of treating conditions characterized by high blood sugar (glucose), such as diabetes. Now, Salk scientists have discovered a […]

This article was originally published on 19 April 2021. Asteroids can pose a threat to life on Earth but are also a valuable source of resources to make fuel or water to aid deep space exploration. Devoid of geological and atmospheric processes, these space rocks provide a window onto the evolution of the solar system. […]