The world faces risks ‘both wholly new and eerily familiar,’ the Global Risks Report 2023 warns. Dangers include geoeconomic confrontation, climate change and divisive competition for resources. The 2023 report from the World Economic Forum ranks risks on a two-year timescale and a longer term 10-year time horizon. It makes for grim reading. The report […]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo… This scream of pain delivered with the intensity of a banshee wail came from the poor, suffering HISTSCI_HULK upon reading an essay on The Conversation (Europe), A hymn to the stars: what happens when science puts the universe into music by the astronomer, Yaël Nazé.   The Conversations banner states, Academic rigour, journalistic flair. Apparently, that bit about academic […]

Researchers are calling for global action to address the complex mix of chemicals that go into plastics and for greater transparency on what they are. Identifying and managing chemicals in plastics is going to be key to tackling waste, they argue. Discussions got underway in December on a global plastics treaty to address the full […]

Stretchable films filled with liquid metal can protect flexible electronic devices from exposure to air and water. The finding could offer a potential way to improve the lifetime of future forms of wearable technology. Most stretchable materials are highly permeable to gases. This makes it challenging to fully protect flexible electronic devices from things like […]

Chemists in Japan have found a reaction that creates four new bonds to one carbon atom, in a single step. The reaction was an accidental discovery during experiments involving N-heterocyclic carbenes. Many chemical reactions involve adding a carbon-containing unit to a substrate molecule. But almost none involve adding just a single carbon atom. This is […]

A bacterium has been discovered that can digest plastic, and its discovery goes some way to explaining why there is significantly less plastic in the oceans than models predict.1 A team from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research started their investigation with a polyethylene plastic that contained carbon-13. When the bacterium Rhodococcus ruber was […]

Organocatalysis pioneer David MacMillan, a joint recipient of the 2021 chemistry Nobel prize, is one of five new directors appointed to the board of the UK’s new Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria). The government made the announcement as it formally established Aria as an independent body. Over the last two years, the government has […]

For over 3000 years ancient Egyptians believed that by preserving their bodies, their souls would live on for eternity. This may explain the lengths they went to in sourcing some of the oils and resins used in the mummification process, according to results from a new chemical analysis of residues recovered from ancient Egyptian embalming […]

A new battle appears to be brewing between academics and the University of California (UC), following unions’ success in negotiating substantial pay rises and improved benefits for staff. This dispute centres on a possible plan by UC to cut the number of graduate students enrolling in the upcoming academic year. An unprecedented 40-day strike by […]

Talks currently underway in Thailand will help shape a new scientific panel to advise governments on one of the world’s most pressing issues: pollution. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that air pollution is responsible for around seven million deaths per year, while exposure to other hazardous chemicals causes a further two million deaths annually. […]