James Shee with Artists of the Ballet in In Colour

Careers

From professional ballet dancer to quantum chemist

Creativity has been central to James Shee’s career across both art and science

Paul Alivisatos

Opinion

Paul Alivisatos: ‘Physical chemistry brought me back into the fold’

The nanomaterials pioneer talks about coming from a family of immigrants, wandering as an undergraduate and finding his compass

Friedrich Adolf Paneth

Opinion

Paneth’s mirrors and the isolation of methyl radicals

Laying the groundwork for the study of combustion and photochemical reactions

Stephen Yao

Careers

Hidden from view: being a scientific advisor for the emergency services

Stephen Yao’s expertise helps the emergency services deal with chemical incidents

A photograph showing teams of emergency responders and a decontamination tent set up in a car park

News

How emergency services prepare for major chemical spills

Meet the experts who prepare emergency responders for the worst case scenario

News

Eleven chemists who have been honoured with a blue plaque

Celebrating the link between historic figures and the buildings they lived and worked in

Opinion

Are you fooling yourself?

Charles Piller’s Doctored and the reality of falsehoods in science

News

Blue plaque honours founder of the Chemical Society set up 185 years ago

Historical sign commemorates Robert Warington’s life with tribute at his home

Highlights

Melanie Sanford with a green chalkboard and chemistry symbols

Melanie Sanford’s route from college gymnast to groundbreaking researcher

One-time gymnast Melanie Sanford has made a name for herself in catalysis and organometallic chemistry. Rebecca Trager charts her path to success, from her mentors to her mentoring

All 20 people

20 years. 20 chemists. 20 stories. Part 2

How has chemistry changed in the last two decades?

Sign language in chemistry

The new signs bringing greater understanding to organic chemistry

Rebecca Trager speaks to a US team developing a sign language lexicon for chemistry concepts that combines form with meaning to make the field more accessible for everyone

Graph

The health of chemistry across the pipeline

More students in the UK are studying chemistry at A-level than 20 years ago, but how does that translate to universities?

Portraits of David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper surrounded by red and blue protein alpha-helices and beta-sheets

How AI protein structure prediction and design won the Nobel prize

David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper won this year’s Nobel prize in chemistry. Jamie Durrani investigates the origins of a biochemistry revolution

Woman in the lab

Analysis reveals ethnic minority applicants’ grant success rates still lower

Engineering and physical sciences’ review panels in UK more likely to award white researchers

Oblique view of the American Chemical Society logo on their building

News

American Chemical Society diversity programme comes under attack

Lawsuit argues that ACS’ Scholars Program discriminates against white and Asian applicants

Man balancing pile of geometric shapes

Opinion

Classifications, racial discrimination and Covid-19

Lessons with philosophical significance for how we group people and objects

NIH

Opinion

Scientific institutions have a long history of anticipatory obedience

Societies should learn from this and speak up to support inclusion

Opinion

Donna Nelson: ‘Being the science advisor to Breaking Bad was so much fun’

The well-known organic chemist on growing up in a small Oklahoma town, asking demographic questions and advising a hit television series

Careers

New UKRI terms do more to acknowledge the diversity of PhD researchers

But further stipend increases are needed to fully widen access to doctoral study

Opinion

Inclusion should be central for chemistry

Why chemistry must remain committed to DEI

An illustrated portrait of Mary Sherman Morgan

Mary Sherman Morgan: The best kept secret in the space race

Anna Demming reveals the scientist who invented the fuel that powered the first US satellite into orbit, yet died with barely a trace on record of her achievements

An image showing a framed portrait of Martin Gouterman

Martin Gouterman: the gay man behind the four-orbital model

Abhik Ghosh tells the story of a porphyrin chemist who was a leading figure in Seattle’s gay rights movement of the 1960s

William Knox Jr

William Knox, the only Black supervisor in the Manhattan Project

The story of the Knox family is one of education overcoming adversity, finds Kit Chapman

Paul Alivisatos

Paul Alivisatos: ‘Physical chemistry brought me back into the fold’

The nanomaterials pioneer talks about coming from a family of immigrants, wandering as an undergraduate and finding his compass

Illustrated portrait of Jon-Paul Griffiths with two fencing silhouettes in the background

Jon-Paul Griffiths: ‘Starting a small company is a phenomenal experience’

The chief technology officer of Oxeco on spinning out, supporting entrepreneurs and the difficulties of identifying a market

Donna Nelson with a tornado

Donna Nelson: ‘Being the science advisor to Breaking Bad was so much fun’

The well-known organic chemist on growing up in a small Oklahoma town, asking demographic questions and advising a hit television series

Man balancing pile of geometric shapes

Opinion

Classifications, racial discrimination and Covid-19

Lessons with philosophical significance for how we group people and objects

Recycled plastic gravel

Opinion

The moral theories behind climate deadlock

Why is it so controversial to do the right thing for the environment?

Opinion

Did AI just win the Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry?

The importance of the expert eye in scientific progress

Opinion

How much science should there be in philosophy?

A debate about metaphysics that’s crucial to how we understand the world

Opinion

Proteins’ shape and function are two sides of the same coin

A new perspective on the relationship between chemistry and biology

Opinion

There’s more to alchemy than its mystical nature

It was crucial to the development of chemistry

Opinion

The nuances of chemical confirmation

Supporting a hypothesis is more difficult than it might seem

Opinion

Taking a feminist standpoint on chemistry

How gender may influence scientific knowledge

Frankenstein set

Opinion

Exploring the on-screen image of chemists

From Frankenstein to Breaking Bad and beyond

Arthur Vogel books

Opinion

Vogel’s textbooks and their international impact on teaching

A shared reference that we risk losing in a digital age

Chemistry superhero

Opinion

Super-powered science

Screaming fans excited about your research, the Sharpie on your lanyard for signing autographs – wouldn’t that be nice?

Friedrich Adolf Paneth

Opinion

Paneth’s mirrors and the isolation of methyl radicals

Laying the groundwork for the study of combustion and photochemical reactions

News

Eleven chemists who have been honoured with a blue plaque

Celebrating the link between historic figures and the buildings they lived and worked in

News

Blue plaque honours founder of the Chemical Society set up 185 years ago

Historical sign commemorates Robert Warington’s life with tribute at his home

Opinion

Scientific institutions have a long history of anticipatory obedience

Societies should learn from this and speak up to support inclusion

Opinion

Donna Nelson: ‘Being the science advisor to Breaking Bad was so much fun’

The well-known organic chemist on growing up in a small Oklahoma town, asking demographic questions and advising a hit television series

Stephen Yao

Careers

Hidden from view: being a scientific advisor for the emergency services

Stephen Yao’s expertise helps the emergency services deal with chemical incidents

Lit light bulb in a sea of unlit light bulbs

News

‘A mix of amazement, pure joy and relief’: chemists reflect on their Eureka moments

Cultivating your surroundings and work practices can make your own Eureka moment more likely

Opinion

Chemists amid coronavirus five years on

Rebecca Trager catches up with four chemists to see how their working lives have changed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic

Opinion

Chemists amid coronavirus five years on: Krystle McLaughlin

An assistant chemistry professor at a small college in New York gets her career back on track, thanks to a tenure clock extension and teaching release

Opinion

Chemists amid coronavirus five years on: Liang Zhang

Lockdown gave a young chemistry professor in China the space and time to consider the most worthwhile projects, and that has benefited his team

Opinion

Chemists amid coronavirus five years on: Anya Gryn’ova

A computational chemist has moved from being group leader at a German research institute to an associate computational chemistry prof in the UK

Man presenting with two big screens behind

Careers

Does gamification have a place in chemistry education?

Escape rooms, murder mysteries and virtual reality are being used to try to make the subject more attractive to students

Headshot

Careers

How Lisa Alford inspires students and celebrates technicians

She was awarded the Royal Society’s 2024 Hauksbee award in recognition of her extraordinary achievements ‘behind the scenes’

Explaining science

Opinion

Take part in the #ChemistryConversations challenge

Will you share your enthusiasm for chemistry with more non-chemists?

Sign language in chemistry

Feature

The new signs bringing greater understanding to organic chemistry

Rebecca Trager speaks to a US team developing a sign language lexicon for chemistry concepts that combines form with meaning to make the field more accessible for everyone

Opinion

Cinematic science

Film screenings that celebrate science, cinema and art

News

Online archive of Humphry Davy’s notebooks opens to the public

Historic collection is the result of a five-year long citizen science project

News

Danish university pauses chemistry demonstrations following accident

‘Genie in a bottle’ demonstration failure hospitalised two,  leading to a review of all experiments in the school’s chemistry shows