When populist Jair Bolsonaro was narrowly elected as Brazil’s new president four years ago, scientists and academics across the country were shaken. They were concerned that funding for research in Brazil would further dry up, along with academic freedoms, and the consensus among essentially all of them is that these fears have been realised. As the […]

George Freeman, the conservative MP who resigned as science minister in July, has been reappointed as a minister for science in Rishi Sunak’s new government. Freeman previously served as science minister for nine months from September 2021 before resigning in protest at then prime minister Boris Johnson’s leadership. At the time, Freeman cited Johnson’s ‘lack […]

For the first time ever, the EU imports more chemicals than it exports, both in volume and value, resulting in a trade deficit of €5.6 billion for the first half of 2022, says the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic). The chemicals industry – one of the most energy intensive in Europe – is struggling to […]

A panel of engineered enzymes can selectively oxidise a series of cyclic amines to form high-value pharmaceutical building blocks. The team used molecular dynamics studies to guide the enzyme evolution process and integrated this strategy into a concise drug synthesis. Cyclic amines are a valuable motif in many pharmaceutical compounds and appear in around 60% […]

Chemists have created a molecular ratchet that acts as a simple chemical Turing machine. It consists of a macrocycle reading out chirality information as it moves along a molecular thread. A Turing machine reads and writes symbols on memory tape while moving back and forth on the tape. Its actions are controlled by rules that define […]

One myth in the history of science that refuses to go away is that the Catholic Church was fundamental opposed to the modern science that emerged during the seventeenth century. They even according to one prevalent theory declared war on it. This myth is of course fuelled by the equally persistent false accounts of the […]

A nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy technique could offer a quick and simple way to identify hotspots in proteins for engineering new and more efficient enzymes. The team behind the work demonstrated the method by directing the evolution of a muscle protein that usually stores oxygen so that it became an effective eliminase enzyme. Protein engineers […]

An active learning algorithm has discovered high-entropy versions of Invar alloys – materials widely used for scientific instruments and industrial transportation of liquefied gases because of their tiny thermal expansion. The technique could have significant potential for searching huge ranges of potential material compositions to find a small number with desirable properties. The 1895 discovery […]

In two years, Europe has seen a four-fold increase in cases where the country of origin of the product containing Reach-non-compliant chemicals is ‘unknown’, according to recent analysis by the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic). The figure has jumped from 4% in 2019, to 12% in 2000 and then to 18% in 2021, and Cefic […]

The 11-storey building at the centre of Bangor University, UK, that once housed its chemistry department is scheduled for demolition. Three years ago, the university decided to end its chemistry courses and research activities as a cost-cutting measure, despite the chemistry community’s overwhelmingly negative response to the proposal. The institution’s decision was based on dramatically […]