A new theoretical model has been created that shows how certain features on a surface affect the freezing point of water. This discovery could enable materials to be designed with surfaces that would make ice form more efficiently requiring less energy – something that could help make snowmaking and cloud seeding, for example, more efficient […]

South Korea is the latest country outside the EU to associate to Horizon Europe, it has been announced. The signing of the association agreement is expected to take place in the second half of this year, enabling South Korea’s participation in Horizon Europe from 2025. Association to Horizon Europe is the closest form of international […]

It’s generally thought that tweeting about a research paper will get it more citations – one traditional indicator of the scholarly impact of a scientific paper. Now a group of scientists with large followings on X, formerly Twitter, has conducted a three-year study which concludes that, while discussing science on social media has many benefits […]

It’s generally thought that tweeting about a research paper will get it more citations – one traditional indicator of the scholarly impact of a scientific paper. Now a group of scientists with large followings on X, formerly Twitter, has conducted a three-year study which concludes that, while discussing science on social media has many benefits […]

A new cross-coupling technique promises to unlock the unexplored chemical space of alcohols by expanding their use as building blocks in the synthesis of new and complex chemicals. The approach, which forms a carbon–carbon bond between two distinct alcohol units in one simple step, could also help reduce the time and resources usually required to […]

The 1996 Nobel prize in chemistry medal, awarded to Robert ‘Bob’ Curl for the joint discovery of fullerenes, is to be auctioned off at the end of March. Curl, who died aged 88 on 3 July 2022, shared the 1996 prize with Harry Kroto and Richard Smalley. Together with graduate students James Heath, Yuan Liu […]

Scientists in the UK have tackled optimisation problems currently targeted by quantum computers using the pulsating Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. Lee Cronin’s University of Glasgow team uses colour oscillations in interconnected wells to encode data. ‘If a chemical computer can beat a quantum computer in message decryption, that would be hilarious,’ Cronin tells Chemistry World. However, […]

Chemical giant Chemours has sacked its chief executive and chief financial officer after an internal review revealed suspicious accounting and compensation practices. The DuPont spin-off had previously postponed reporting its 2023 financial results and placed chief executive Mark Newman, chief financial officer Jonathan Lock, and principal accounting officer Camela Wisel on administrative leave for the duration […]

After working together for over two decades on photomechanical crystals, chemists in the US and Saudi Arabia have built molecular crystal motors that are completely powered by light. When exposed to light, these tiny machines perform coordinated movements and exhibit the unique ability to sustain continuous motion through a feedback loop. With further development, the […]

Micro- and nanoplastics taken up by gastric cancer cells are passed on during cell division, according to new research by researchers in Austria and Germany. Particles around 0.25μm in size also increased the rate of migration in these cells and are thought to have pro-metastatic effects. ‘It was very surprising that cells are not only […]