In this episode we are going to take another look at a sixteenth century scholar, who had a profound influence on Galileo in many different ways, Guidobaldo dal[1] Monte (1545–1607). Guidobaldo was born in Pesaro in the Duchy of Urbino, the son of Ranieri the head of a wealthy family. Ranieri was a professional soldier and […]

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is calling on government to engage with the deep tech chemistry sector to help drive investment and address the ongoing lack of access to suitable lab facilities in the UK. The announcement comes as part of the RSC’s ‘Unlocking Innovation report’ which set out to understand the challenges holding […]

A new protein sequencing method, which uses a biological motor to pull a protein through a tiny nanopore, could revolutionise protein analysis. The researchers at the University of Washington have also achieved a significant breakthrough in detecting post-translational modifications, including phosphorylation, to full-length protein structures at single molecule resolution. The human genome has about 20,000 […]

The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has nominated Bulgarian politician Ekaterina Zaharieva as the EU’s commissioner for research and innovation. ‘We must put research and innovation, science and technology at the centre of our economy. She will help ensure that we invest more and focus our spending on strategic priorities and on groundbreaking […]

With the 2024 chemistry Nobel prize just two weeks away, anticipation is reaching fever pitch among aficionados of the award. Analysts and online commentators have proposed a number of contenders for the prize, with favourites including molecular dynamics, clean energy and three-dimensional protein structure prediction.  Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science provider, has published its annual […]

The American Nuclear Society (ANS) has written an open letter highlighting its concerns over a policy article published in Science on the weapons potential of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). In the article, published in June, nuclear scientists warned that governments and others promoting the use of HALEU for nuclear power had not considered the potential […]

Three people in the US have been indicted for their part in a multi-million-dollar scheme to illegally import and distribute trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA) from China. TCCA is commonly used as a source of chlorine to sanitise swimming pool water. The US Department of Justice has charged the men with 26 counts of smuggling and fraud, […]

Scotland’s only oil refinery at Grangemouth is to cease operations next year. The Petroineos facility will be converted to a terminal for importing finished fuel such as petrol and diesel. Petroineos said Grangemouth is increasingly unable to compete with bigger, more modern and efficient sites in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The closure is […]

A dye commonly found in food and cosmetics can be used to reversibly turn the surface tissues of a living mouse transparent. The novel technique, which the researchers call counterintuitive, requires no specialised equipment and allows the direct visualisation of anatomical features like muscle fibres, blood vessels and organs. ‘To make transparent mice in life […]

With Robert Recorde (c. 1510–1558) and  John Dee (1527–c. 1608), we have already looked at two mathematical practitioners, who were among the first to publish mathematical texts in the vernacular in sixteenth century England. A third member of this group was Leonard Digges (c.1515–c. 1559) who was a friend of Dee’s. Usually, if Leonard is known […]