The scientific community was shocked when Charles Lieber, who chaired Harvard’s chemistry department and was a faculty member for almost 30 years, was convicted of hiding his links to China in December 2021. More than three years after the nanoscience pioneer’s arrest, he has finally been sentenced and avoided jailtime. With this case closed, researchers […]

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed new rules that would set carbon emissions standards for coal and gas-fired power plants under the US Clean Air Act. The agency estimates that this would avoid the emission of more than 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution by 2042. The proposed regulations would also result […]

The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) has welcomed the UK government’s decision to scrap plans for all retained EU laws to automatically expire by the end of 2023, in the absence of a decision to preserve them. The institution had expressed concern that safety legislation could be affected by the sunset clause. Under the Retained […]

Using dental calculus from Neanderthals and Palaeolithic humans, researchers have reconstructed ancient microbial genes and engineered modern bacteria to produce their previously unknown metabolites. The approach will allow natural product researchers to ‘add a new dimension and go back in time’ according to bioorganic chemist Pierre Stallforth from the Hans Knöll Institute in Jena, Germany, […]

A novel neural network can help chemists calculate adsorption energies effectively and efficiently – up to one million times faster than state-of-the-art methodologies. Once again, artificial intelligence has proven to be a potent tool to accelerate discovery, particularly in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. The improvements in the design and development of catalysts could create […]

An explosion and fire at a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Newburyport, US, on 4 May has killed one employee. Four others were hospitalised but have since been released from care. The explosion at contract development and manufacturing organisation Seqens (formerly PCI Synthesis) blew through the plant roof and propelled a large steel vessel around 10m […]

A far more efficient and selective catalyst for electrochemically reducing carbon monoxide to acetate has been developed by an international collaboration headed by researchers in China and Canada. They found that less is more when it comes to the copper catalyst, and that reducing the amount used actually inhibits side reactions, producing more acetate. More […]

A re-engineered solar cell material can detect x-rays at doses 250 times less than the current top-performing detectors. High-quality single crystals of bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) demonstrated enhanced x-ray attenuation properties, so patients going for an x-ray might one day benefit from reduced radiation exposure making this essential medical procedure safer. X-rays are a valuable diagnostic […]

As people were heading towards a milk vendor in Ludhiana, India, early in the morning of 30 April, highly toxic gas suddenly overwhelmed and killed 11 people, including two children, in the street and nearby houses. Four others were injured but have since recovered. Preliminary investigations indicate that there was a high concentration of hydrogen […]

An investigation into hair surface friction has extended chemical understanding surrounding bleached hair.1 It confirmed that surface chemistry modifications, rather than roughness changes or subsurface damage is responsible for increased friction at the nanoscale level in bleached or chemically damaged hair. Erik Weiand, who co-led the work at Imperial College London, UK, says the methodology […]