Essential 2024
Join us for deep dives into chemistry’s most intriguing questions, reflections on the year’s major news events, top tips for running your lab effectively, inspiring stories from the global science community, and much more.
2024 in review
Our pick of the top chemistry stories from 2024
Taking the long view from 2024
Looking back helps us choose how to move forward
Chemicals industry roundup 2024
Europe continues to struggle with high energy and feedstock costs, while US and Asia negotiate supply gluts
Pharmaceuticals roundup 2024
Diabetes and weight loss drugs have surged in popularity, revealing supply frailties
Latest
Research
AI can tell Scottish and American whiskies apart
Machine-learning method identifies prominent aromas
Feature
A mouthful of mouthfeel
Andy Extance learns how the chemicals in food and drink create sensual culinary experiences
Feature
Life on ice
We may be able to freeze embryos, but challenges remain for larger organs. Hayley Bennett talks to the scientists trying to push the boundaries of cryopreservation
Puzzle
Cryptic elements jumbo CrOsSWORd 2024
If cryptic crosswords aren’t challenging enough for you, try this jumbo one that only uses letters found in elemental symbols
News
Forty years on from the Bhopal disaster what lessons have been learnt?
India looks to the future as survivors fight on to receive adequate compensation and medical care
AI can tell Scottish and American whiskies apart
Machine-learning method identifies prominent aromas
European Commission bans bisphenol A in food packaging
There will be an 18-month phase out period to allow industry time to adapt
Electrochemical process that bypasses limestone could slash cement’s huge carbon footprint
GPT-based AI tool predicts inorganic crystal structures
AI aids discovery of solar cell materials with near-record efficiency
Debunked dogma: disordered proteins disregard ligands’ chirality
mRNA therapy might one day treat deadly pre-eclampsia in pregnant women
Gold monolayers could provide platform for studying properties of 2D metals
Antiaromatic hydrocarbon boasts unusual stability
High levels of PFAS found in smartwatch wristbands
Extractable compounds provide opportunity for significant skin exposure
PFAS manufacturers sued for deceptive marketing in US
Texas attorney general accuses 3M and DuPont of knowingly concealing health risks
Chemicals industry roundup 2024
Pharmaceuticals roundup 2024
Opposition to lithium mines hampers green technology supply chain
Extracting treasure from trash
US aims to reinstate chlorpyrifos insecticide ban
Forty years on from the Bhopal disaster what lessons have been learnt?
Metal–organic framework captures carbon dioxide at industrially relevant temperatures
The value of research is measured in many ways
Academia is a broad church
Sydney Young and his evaporative fractionator
Developments in distillation find us in good spirits
There are no life lessons to be learned in AI’s Chinese Room
There’s a lot more lab work to do before we understand the ‘language of life’
The champagne cases
When bottles of bubbly conceal criminal activities
Extracting treasure from trash
The corpus of scientific literature needs a drastic clean-up
Taking the long view from 2024
Looking back helps us choose how to move forward
Letters: December 2024
Readers share concerns over classifying ethanol as reprotoxic, celebrate undergraduate practical innovation, and more
The moral theories behind climate deadlock
Why is it so controversial to do the right thing for the environment?
Broadband benchtop NMR spectroscopy: it’s more than just proton and carbon
Join us for a demonstration of how benchtop NMR can be used to study elements beyond hydrogen and carbon
Purposeful simulation: Maximising impact in surface chemistry modelling
Learn how to select appropriate computational models to deliver impact in surface chemistry research
Emerging routes to new therapeutics: Highlights from winning Horizon Prize teams
Discover how new therapeutics have the potential to address unmet medical needs
ChemisTwin: Cloud-based analysis of NMR and IR spectra
Discover how analytical software can support your workflow
News
Chemists use AI to uncover pigments used on Berlin Wall murals
Researchers hope work will help to preserve this art
Opinion
Sydney Young and his evaporative fractionator
Developments in distillation find us in good spirits
Opinion
Letters: December 2024
Readers share concerns over classifying ethanol as reprotoxic, celebrate undergraduate practical innovation, and more
Opinion
The moral theories behind climate deadlock
Why is it so controversial to do the right thing for the environment?
Sponsored
Setting new standards for British laboratories
Lab Innovations brings together experts from all corners of the industry
AstraZeneca synthetic chemistry prize winner celebrates ‘culmination of a high-quality academia-industry collaboration’
Ruth Webster from University of Cambridge wins 2024 AstraZeneca prize in synthetic chemistry for her work on iron catalysis
Lessons from a Nobel laureate teach us how to think better
In a world of AI, chemists need statistical thinking
Broadband benchtop NMR spectroscopy: it’s more than just proton and carbon
Join us for a demonstration of how benchtop NMR can be used to study elements beyond hydrogen and carbon
Purposeful simulation: Maximising impact in surface chemistry modelling
Learn how to select appropriate computational models to deliver impact in surface chemistry research
ChemisTwin: Cloud-based analysis of NMR and IR spectra
Discover how analytical software can support your workflow
Copper-catalysed carbon-heteroatom bond-forming processes
Explore cutting edge copper-catalysed carbon-heteroatom bond formations used in industrial applications
Driving innovation in the UK’s emerging biotechnology sector
Biotech startups and spinouts must overcome numerous challenges to get from lab to market. A new UK innovation hub aims to give this emerging sector the space, resources and expertise it needs.
20 years. 20 chemists. 20 stories. Part 2
How has chemistry changed in the last two decades?
The narrative CV: a step towards more inclusive science?
Exploring an alternative to a traditional list of achievements
Financial challenges affect the health of UK chemistry
Maintaining a healthy chemistry pipeline requires affordable education and training routes
Do chemists die young?
Death notices for chemists suggest perhaps not, despite the hazards found in many labs