The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) is winding down after 22 years of operation. In a letter sent on 26 June 2023, NCRI chair Fiona Driscoll said that the board of trustees had decided that the ‘risk of operational failure was too great to continue’ and the board was now working on the ‘required steps’ […]

A ‘one pot’ process for manufacturing oligonucleotides – short 20–30 base pair DNA or RNA molecules – has been developed. Oligonucleotides are of interest as they can be used to treat a range of medical conditions, but mass producing them is still difficult. The biocatalytic process to produce oligonucleotides was developed by Sarah Lovelock at […]

French biotechnology start-up Carbios has developed an enzymatic process for recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) back into its constituent monomers, from which new plastic can be produced with the same properties as virgin material. ‘Everybody believes PET is easily recyclable because bottles are easily recyclable in a mechanical way,’ says chief executive Emmanuel Ladent. ‘But food trays, for the […]

Materials scientist John Goodenough, the inventor of the lithium–ion battery, died on 25 June – just a month shy of his 101st birthday. His pioneering work on the now ubiquitous lithium-ion battery led to him receiving the 2019 Nobel prize in chemistry. His work helped to spawn the wireless revolution and put electronic devices in […]

An integrated device has been developed that can convert carbon dioxide captured from the air into hydrogen and carbon monoxide using sunlight. This process coupled captured carbon dioxide reduction to the oxidation of plastic waste, generating the feedstock chemical glycolic acid to boot. ‘This is the first demonstration of connecting direct air capture of carbon […]

The government has extended the financial guarantee to researchers applying for funding from Horizon Europe once more, even as it calls for ideas for the next research and innovation ‘moonshots’ that could be delivered via the UK’s proposed Horizon alternative. It’s the fifth time the safety net has been extended since it was set up […]

Researchers in Japan have combined two of chemistry’s most well-known structural motifs to make a new class of interlocked supramolecular system: ‘MOFaxanes’. The new structure is a combination of a metal–organic framework (MOF) and a rotaxane. MOFs are crystalline materials formed of a network of metal ions and organic linker molecules. They generally contain nanometre-sized […]

As Vajinder Kumar saw more and more cases of cancer in young and old as he travelled through village after village in the Malwa region in northern India he became increasingly concerned. ‘In one village I saw 30 cases of cancer, in another 25, and many people living with brain and nerve disorders,’ says Kumar, […]

The situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) following the breach of the Kakhovka dam is currently ‘under control’, a Ukrainian expert has told Chemistry World. However, Dmytro Gumenyuk, head of the safety analysis unit at the State Scientific and Technical Centre on Nuclear and Radiation Safety in Kyiv, Ukraine, says Russian troops must […]

In the early hours of Tuesday 6 June, the 30m high, 2km long Nova Kakhovka dam, located upstream of the city of Kherson on the Dnipro River in occupied southern Ukraine, collapsed. The destruction of the dam, which was under the control of the Russian military, caused extensive flooding along the lower Dnipro River in […]