Chemists in Japan have found a reaction that creates four new bonds to one carbon atom, in a single step. The reaction was an accidental discovery during experiments involving N-heterocyclic carbenes. Many chemical reactions involve adding a carbon-containing unit to a substrate molecule. But almost none involve adding just a single carbon atom. This is […]

A bacterium has been discovered that can digest plastic, and its discovery goes some way to explaining why there is significantly less plastic in the oceans than models predict.1 A team from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research started their investigation with a polyethylene plastic that contained carbon-13. When the bacterium Rhodococcus ruber was […]

Organocatalysis pioneer David MacMillan, a joint recipient of the 2021 chemistry Nobel prize, is one of five new directors appointed to the board of the UK’s new Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria). The government made the announcement as it formally established Aria as an independent body. Over the last two years, the government has […]

For over 3000 years ancient Egyptians believed that by preserving their bodies, their souls would live on for eternity. This may explain the lengths they went to in sourcing some of the oils and resins used in the mummification process, according to results from a new chemical analysis of residues recovered from ancient Egyptian embalming […]

A new battle appears to be brewing between academics and the University of California (UC), following unions’ success in negotiating substantial pay rises and improved benefits for staff. This dispute centres on a possible plan by UC to cut the number of graduate students enrolling in the upcoming academic year. An unprecedented 40-day strike by […]

Talks currently underway in Thailand will help shape a new scientific panel to advise governments on one of the world’s most pressing issues: pollution. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that air pollution is responsible for around seven million deaths per year, while exposure to other hazardous chemicals causes a further two million deaths annually. […]

I suppose it’s almost inevitable that if one begins to take a deeper interest in the history of science, then at some point one’s attention turns to the history of the book. After all, whether in the form of wedges impressed in clay tablets, symbols carved in stone or wood[1], or various forms of writing […]

Staff at 150 UK universities are set to go on strike from Wednesday in a significant escalation of an ongoing dispute over pay, working conditions and pension cuts. It will be the biggest series of strikes ever seen in the UK’s academic sector. 70,000 members of the University and College Union (UCU) took part in […]

Photoredox catalysis, which harnesses the power of light to drive chemical reactions, has now gone asymmetric, allowing chemists to prepare valuable single-enantiomer products. ‘Photocatalysis exploits the energy of visible light to generate reactive radical species under remarkably mild conditions,’ explains Mattia Silvi, a photochemistry expert at the University of Nottingham, UK. ‘But the high reactivity […]

The chemistry Nobel prize awarded to Hungarian–American chemist George Olah in 1994 for his work on carbocations is the latest to be auctioned off. Bidding for the prize, which is made of 18kt gold and plated in 24kt gold, opened at $200,000 (£161,500) and it fetched a final price of $250,000 when the Nate Sanders […]