Nearly 50,000 academic researchers, postdocs, graduate students and teaching assistants at all 10 campuses of the University of California, US, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are set to begin a massive strike today over what they deem unfair labour practices related to insufficient pay, rights and benefits. ‘We have been bargaining throughout the weekend, and […]

Scientists in Germany have developed a strategy that enhances the solubility of long-chain anionic surfactants at ambient temperatures.1 In the future, it might be possible to use the strategy to formulate cleaning products from rapeseed, olive or sunflower oils, and cut the amount of surfactant required in washing detergents. The strategy is called Complet or […]

Molecular motors have been created that either rotate or fluoresce when stimulated by a specific wavelength of light. It is the first time that two independent light-driven functions have been incorporated into the same molecular motor and could see them used to probe how cells function. Molecular machines are an intense area of chemical research […]

A new, more efficient process to electrochemically recycle some homogeneous catalysts has been demonstrated by scientists in the US. The technique, which reversibly binds the metal complexes to a polymer, can recover several industrially important and precious metal catalysts. In homogeneous catalysis the active sites of the catalyst are fully dispersed into the reaction mixture. […]

It’s been 100 years since curly, also known as curved, arrows first showed up in the scientific literature. Since then, they have made friends and foes, and gone from a novelty to an organic chemistry staple. While for the longest time, arrows were no more than a shorthand with no grounding in reality, evidence has […]

Earlier this year, over 190 nations agreed to negotiate a legally binding treaty to address plastic pollution, energising efforts by governments, industry and international institutions to improve plastic recycling rates. The lack of a recognised system for tracing the origin of plastic products is part of the challenge of managing plastic waste. Now, researchers across […]

An informal survey of 1000 chemists and life scientists has shown that most dislike their lab coats – not enough pockets, no choice of colour, inconvenient open cuffs and, most of all, terrible fit. Respondents to the survey conducted by Genius Lab Gear were unhappy about the length of their coats’ sleeves, the shoulders being […]

A totally automated synthesis that allows carbon chains to be grown one atom at a time with control of chain length and stereochemistry has been developed. ‘Mimicking nature’s work, we have instructed a robotic platform to build complex structures in an iterative manner, joining together small units like a Lego set,’ explains Valerio Fasano who […]

A group of environmental scientists and other researchers in the UK has issued a call for military carbon dioxide emissions to be included in global climate change mitigation efforts. Their commentary notes that the world’s militaries are significant contributors to greenhouse gases, with estimates suggesting they emit between 1% and 5% of global emissions. Although […]

Almost every university in the UK will face three days of walk outs later this month after members of the University and College Union (UCU) backed strike action. Strikes are expected to take place at every single university in the country that has a chemistry department. The strikes are a significant escalation in an ongoing […]