A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool can classify chemical reaction mechanisms using concentration data to make predictions that are 99.6% accurate with realistically noisy data. Igor Larrosa and Jordi Bures from the University of Manchester have made the model freely available to help progress ‘fully automated organic reaction discovery and development’. ‘There is a lot […]

The mathematisation of science is considered to be one of the principle defining characteristics of the so-called scientific revolution in the seventeenth century. Knowledge presentation on the European, medieval universities was predominantly Aristotelian in nature and Aristotle was dismissive of mathematics. He argued that the objects of mathematics were not real and therefore mathematics could […]

The HistSci-Hulk woke up briefly from his winter slumbers to cast a bleary eye over a piece by Katie Steckles on the web site Spektrum.de SciLogs celebrating, what some are calling the Fibonacci New Year, because it starts with 1/1/23 the first four digits of the so-called Fibonacci sequence. It doesn’t really because the sequence […]

Way back at the beginning of November I wrote what was intended to be the first of a series of posts about English mathematical practitioners, who were active at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries. I did not think it would be two months before I could continue that […]

A simple protocol has been developed to make single-atom catalysts using 3D printing. The researchers believe the procedure, which removes the need for a variety of complex and expensive synthetic processes, could prove scalable and therefore allow industry to benefit from the advantages of single-atom catalysis. In single-atom catalysts, the catalyst is atomically dispersed – […]

A streamlined synthesis of the antimalarial (–)-quinine by researchers in Japan has showcased ‘pot economy’ as a sustainable organic strategy for chemical production. The team achieved the 18-step total synthesis in a five-reaction sequence, both reducing waste and saving time in their carefully designed process. Quinine, an alkaloid extracted from the bark of the cinchona […]

The Welsh government has proposed a national nuclear facility to supply medical radioisotopes to the whole of the UK. Based in north Wales, this would entail a nuclear reactor as part of a public sector national laboratory, generating medical isotopes for the UK health service and beyond. It would cost an estimated £400 million. Worldwide, […]

A new metal-free strategy offers a site-selective and general way to functionalise arenes. This photochemical method works on starting materials that feature many other functional groups, meaning it can be used for the late-stage modification of complex compounds like pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Researchers from the University of Manchester, UK, developed a donor–acceptor complex that generates […]

A new allotrope of carbon has been created that is being described as graphene’s ‘superatomic’ cousin by the team of US researchers behind it. Dubbed graphullerene, this atom-thin material is made of linked fullerene subunits. This novel form of carbon combines elements of two-dimensional carbon sheets and zero-dimensional carbon superatoms, and it could facilitate the […]

Using the simplest and widest definition as to what constitutes a scientific instrument, it is literally impossible to say who first created, devised, used a scientific instrument or when and where they did it. My conjecture would be that the first scientific instrument was some sort of measuring device, a rod, or a cord to […]