Latest
Observing Cop28 with a gender lens
Avoid so-called climate solutions that disadvantage the most marginalised
The science education programme partnering with people in prison
Think Like a Scientist focuses on empowering students
Henninger and Le Bel’s fractionator and the importance of lab culture
An undercurrent of collaboration
Carol Robinson: ‘I really wanted to wave the flag about technicians’
The mass spectrometry trailblazer on leaving school at 16 and waving the flag for technicians
How much science should there be in philosophy?
A debate about metaphysics that’s crucial to how we understand the world
Lab digitalisation and industry 4.0
How technology can help us run our labs more efficiently
Everyone belongs in the chemical sciences
Speaking up to make our workplaces more inclusive
A post-Flixborough risk assessment
In the last 50 years, attitudes to safety have improved so that first-hand experience of lab incidents is now rare
Our columnists
Philip Ball is an award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster who explores the history and philosophy of chemistry
Enormous enzymes expand the limits of molecular biology
Identifying the PKZILLAs, used by algae to make toxins, stretched the capabilities of current analytical methods – and the limits of our preconceptions
Raychelle Burks is an associate professor in the US and an award-winning science communicator and broadcaster.
What’s lurking in your drink and drugs?
How to test illicit substances at festivals and identify the rodent in your beer
Nessa Carson is a synthetic organic research chemist based in Macclesfield, UK
Working in the chemical industries, plural
Despite often being presented as a monolith, there’s a huge variety of activities, working practices and reaction scales across industrial research
Chemjobber is a US-based industry insider, telling tales of tank reactors and organic obstacles
The power of a printed chart
Even in this online era, some things are still best kept on paper
Derek Lowe is a medicinal chemist in the US, sharing wit and wisdom from a life spent in preclinical drug discovery
Being wrong is almost inevitable
On the tightrope of expressing your opinion, you always risk looking a fool
Alice Motion is an associate professor in Australia interested in citizen science, public outreach and education
The science education programme partnering with people in prison
Think Like a Scientist focuses on empowering students
Chris Nawrat (aka BRSM) is a process chemist at a major pharmaceutical company in the US
(–)-Bipolarolide D
A rare example of a [6 + 2]-cycloaddition
Vanessa Seifert explores philosophical issues from the novel perspective of chemistry
How much science should there be in philosophy?
A debate about metaphysics that’s crucial to how we understand the world
Andrea Sella is a professor of inorganic chemistry in the UK with a passion for unravelling the unlikely origins of scientific kit
Henninger and Le Bel’s fractionator and the importance of lab culture
An undercurrent of collaboration
Research landscape
A holistic approach to success
Three activities that helped me to thrive in academia and beyond
How hoarding knowledge is hurting the industry in the long run
Sharing results that are not commercially viable would speed up research
The striking truth
Better pay can benefit the whole research enterprise
Breaking the cycle of teach, test, forget
A focus on exams makes it harder for students to cultivate a deep understanding of their subject
Holes in the ‘holey graphyne’ story
The challenges – and importance – of questioning published results
Harnessing fear and greed for innovation
Many powerful emotions motivate us in the search for new knowledge
UK researchers need to know academic freedom is safe from political interference
The UK science secretary’s recent statements are causing alarm in the research community
Industry landscape
Being wrong is almost inevitable
On the tightrope of expressing your opinion, you always risk looking a fool
On your best behaviour
Which might be different at work and at home
Science needs to get its house in order when it comes to energy use and waste
Labs have an outsized environmental footprint but solutions are within reach
Can supercapacitors be the next energy superheroes?
Offering complementary properties to batteries, their time might be round the corner
Letters: September 2024
Readers discuss antidepressants, industrial disasters and what Humphry Davy inhaled
Profiles
Teaching enzymes new reactions through genetic code expansion and directed evolution
Anthony Green’s research group at the University of Manchester, UK, reengineers enzymes to have catalytic functions beyond those found in nature
Carol Robinson: ‘I really wanted to wave the flag about technicians’
The mass spectrometry trailblazer on leaving school at 16 and waving the flag for technicians
The early-career engineer showcasing women in the chemical industry
Jordan Riddle explains how embracing change and extra curricular activities has benefited her work in chemical production
The early-career engineer showcasing women in the chemical industry
Jordan Riddle explains how embracing change and extra curricular activities has benefited her work in chemical production
Ijeoma Uchegbu: ‘My approach is always to be kind’
The innovative nanoscientist on the power of kindness and how she scrubbed eugenicists from campus buildings
Emmeline Edwards: ‘I connect the dots’
The Haitian-American neurochemist on her journey from Haiti to the US as a teenager, and her journey from chemistry to brain science
Gregory Robinson: ‘We were members of the last generation to attend segregated schools’
The synthetic inorganic chemist on attending a segregated school in Alabama, balancing football and chemistry, and tennis as a muse
How Rainbow Lo is accelerating innovation
Impatient for change, she joined Paris-based sustainable ‘deep tech’ agency Hello Tomorrow
Proteins’ shape and function are two sides of the same coin
By Francesca Bellazzi
A new perspective on the relationship between chemistry and biology
How hoarding knowledge is hurting the industry in the long run
By Samantha Ratnayake
Sharing results that are not commercially viable would speed up research