It has been several decades since the monoclonal antibody Synagis (palivizumab) was approved as a preventative for severe disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. But it seems possible that, by the end of the summer, there will be three brand new therapies – including two vaccines and a long-acting antibody – approved for […]

A newly discovered pathway for formaldehyde oxidation could be an important general mechanism in tropospheric chemistry. In the new route, absorption of sunlight allows organic molecules to react with atmospheric oxygen in a reaction that had not previously been observed. According to the researchers behind the findings, many compounds in the atmosphere are likely to […]

A new drug delivery technique uses synthetic molecular motors to release a drug when activated by visible light. The proof-of-principle delivery mechanism, which was tested on cultured lung cancer cells, could enable a non-invasive, highly controlled and targeted way to activate drugs inside the body. Ben Feringa at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands […]

A photoredox-induced radical pathway is behind a synthetic strategy that allows users to insert a small ring into a heterocyclic parent ring. Frank Glorius from the University of Münster in Germany, who developed the method with Kendall Houk at the University of California, Los Angeles in the US, compared it to sleight-of-hand magic. ‘Maybe a […]

Pairs of frustrated radical species can selectively activate carbon–hydrogen bonds that were previously inaccessible with existing methods. The reagents are easily tuned, allowing them to target different C–H bonds on substrate molecules as required. Reactions that activate aliphatic C–H bonds are very useful in organic chemistry, but the stability of these ubiquitous bonds makes selective […]

The Prospect union, which represents over 150,000 science and technology workers in the UK, has called off its national strike action after reaching a deal with the government. The agreement includes a one-off cost-of-living payment and new commitments on potential redundancies. Prospect members took industrial action earlier this year in a dispute over pay, working […]

Two groups have independently created perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells that surpass 30% efficiency. The two designs use different techniques to minimise losses, but together constitute an important milestone on the road to proving the value of perovskite top layers to silicon solar cells. In the year since the cells were first reported, several other groups […]

The highest status individual in copper age Iberian society was a woman, not a man as was previously believed. The discovery is the result of an analysis of peptides extracted from tooth enamel taken from ancient remains found in a tomb in southern Spain. In 2008, the remains of an unusually high-ranking individual were discovered […]

Researchers in the US have synthesised and crystallised a metal–organic capsule with an internal volume of 3500Å3.1 C-alkylpyrogallol[4]arenes have previously been assembled into dimeric and hexameric capsules with a range of metal ions both in the solid state and in solution. Ten years ago, researchers reported solution-phase evidence of a dodecameric capsule assembled with holmium, […]

The 1984 Bhopal disaster that exposed thousands in the Indian city to toxic methyl isocyanate has had long term, intergenerational effects on victims, a new study has found. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego note that multiple studies have shown a broad spectrum of serious long term and chronic health effects for hundreds […]