A chiral polymer has been made from entirely achiral monomers, simply by using a magnetic field to align the spin of the electrons involved in bond formation. Creating large organic molecules as single mirror images is important in many fields of chemistry. ‘When you want to make drugs, for example, they have to be recognised […]

Christopher Barton has been building rockets since he was 11, and began his career in the aerospace industry. However, he saw an opportunity to use carbon dioxide to create useful materials like silica, in a way that is cheaper and with a lower carbon footprint than current methods. ‘The logic was that CO2 is the […]

The simple statement that the history of science is global history is for me and, I assume, for every reasonably well-informed historian of science a rather trivial truism. So, I feel that James Poskett and the publishers Viking are presenting something of a strawman with the sensational claims for Poskett’s new book, Horizons: A Global History of […]

Researchers have developed an organic redox flow battery that uses polypeptides as anolyte and catholyte materials.1 The concept could help to overcome sustainability problems with existing redox flow battery systems. As the world pushes towards greener sources of energy, redox flow batteries are emerging as large-scale energy storage systems. However, a current issue with many […]

‘Wellcome is still an institutionally racist organisation’, admitted director Jeremy Farrar last week. He apologised that the organisation had not acted ‘with the urgency required’ following its commitment to becoming an anti-racist organisation two years prior. This came after the funder published an independent review of its anti-racism initiatives that concluded Wellcome is perpetuating and exacerbating […]

Why certain organs of animals fossilise and others simply disappear has remained a scientific mystery. But researchers in the UK studied the chemistry inside decaying fish while they rotted for two and a half months and discovered that it all depends on each organ’s phosphate levels. Most fossils preserve hard tissues like bone, shells and […]

The first magnesium-based electride has been synthesised by researchers in Norway, Poland and Spain. Electrides are of interest to materials scientists as they hold free-floating electrons in internal cavities, and therefore exhibit properties such as high conductivity. Among other things, this new species is stable at room temperature, offering new opportunities in materials science and […]

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has confirmed it will withdraw its talc-based baby powders worldwide by 2023. The products will be replaced by formulations based on cornstarch, which are already sold in many countries worldwide. The firm is facing thousands of lawsuits in the US, from consumers who claim that asbestos in the talc-based powders caused […]

An electrocatalytic method has been developed that can generate metal hydrides more cleanly and efficiently. The researchers then used the hydrides to reduce carbon dioxide to formic acid, a high value-added commodity chemical. ‘We were inspired by the efficiency of enzymes,’ explains Victor Mougel from ETH Zurich in Switzerland, who led the study. In nature, […]

‘It was kind of crazy,’ laughs Beatriz Pelaz as she describes her colourful academic journey. ‘But I did it, and it worked out.’ ‘Worked out’ is certainly an understatement – this year Pelaz was awarded the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry’s Young Researcher prize in recognition of her outstanding early career trajectory. In 2017 Pelaz […]