Researchers in China have created a dual-phase ceramic that deforms rather than cracks when compressed. The team believes the technique, in which silicon nitride absorbs stress through bond switching during gradual phase change, could potentially be applied in other hard ceramics made from covalent bonds. Covalent ceramics like silicon nitride are among the strongest, hardest […]

The electronic structure of hydrated proton complexes has been measured precisely using x-ray spectroscopy and simulations.1 The new results, which give insights into what happens during proton transport in water, could be used to optimise hydrogen fuel cells and understand how proton pumps work in biological systems. ‘Solving the structure and transport mechanism of an […]

Do you have children, grandchildren, nephews & nieces, grandnephews & grandnieces, the children of friends, age group 7–12, that you would like to give a book as a Christmas present. An entertaining but also educational book, a well written and beautifully illustrated book, a fascinating and intriguing book? Then look no further, I have the […]

By tuning the magnetic properties of porphyrin chains, researchers are gaining new insights into materials that could be used in data-storage and quantum computing. A research team led by Xiaodong Zhuang and Shiyong Wang from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China, prepared porphyrin chains on a gold surface. Using microscopy techniques applied in atomic […]

When populist Jair Bolsonaro was narrowly elected as Brazil’s new president four years ago, scientists and academics across the country were shaken. They were concerned that funding for research in Brazil would further dry up, along with academic freedoms, and the consensus among essentially all of them is that these fears have been realised. As the […]

George Freeman, the conservative MP who resigned as science minister in July, has been reappointed as a minister for science in Rishi Sunak’s new government. Freeman previously served as science minister for nine months from September 2021 before resigning in protest at then prime minister Boris Johnson’s leadership. At the time, Freeman cited Johnson’s ‘lack […]

For the first time ever, the EU imports more chemicals than it exports, both in volume and value, resulting in a trade deficit of €5.6 billion for the first half of 2022, says the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic). The chemicals industry – one of the most energy intensive in Europe – is struggling to […]

A panel of engineered enzymes can selectively oxidise a series of cyclic amines to form high-value pharmaceutical building blocks. The team used molecular dynamics studies to guide the enzyme evolution process and integrated this strategy into a concise drug synthesis. Cyclic amines are a valuable motif in many pharmaceutical compounds and appear in around 60% […]

Chemists have created a molecular ratchet that acts as a simple chemical Turing machine. It consists of a macrocycle reading out chirality information as it moves along a molecular thread. A Turing machine reads and writes symbols on memory tape while moving back and forth on the tape. Its actions are controlled by rules that define […]

One myth in the history of science that refuses to go away is that the Catholic Church was fundamental opposed to the modern science that emerged during the seventeenth century. They even according to one prevalent theory declared war on it. This myth is of course fuelled by the equally persistent false accounts of the […]