Headlines

An oil drum that has been moved by bad weather and a flood resting against a chain link fence

Business

Arkema settles local claims over US hurricane fire emissions

2024-09-06T12:04:00+01:00

Peroxides producer will pay $1.1 million and make safety improvements

In depth

A thermogram showing hot industrial smoke stacks

Electrification of process heat stands to slash industry’s emissions

Technologies available now can decarbonise most heat demand, but cost and infrastructure barriers still exist

Medicine bottles on a pharmacy shelf marked as empty

Explainer: Why drug shortages happen and how can we reduce them?

Record-high numbers of drugs are in short supply, from chemotherapy and antibiotics to hormone replacements

Explainers

AI chatbot

Should scientists be paid when AI chatbots use their work?

Two major scientific publishers have recently sold access to research papers to train AIs at big tech firms

Laser

Labs across the globe networked by AI discover state-of-the-art emitters for lasers

Demonstration shows how algorithms could organise timing and match specialist equipment to experiments

Hourglass

Are we rushing ahead with AI in the lab?

Patience will be key to making machine learning indispensable – and practical – for chemistry

Belgian beer

Brewing better Belgian beer with artificial intelligence

Machine learning tool can predict a beer’s taste and quality and which flavour compounds could improve it

AI could provide new approach to assessing chemical toxicity thresholds in aquatic organisms

 Model showed excellent predicative ability and could cut animal testing in pollution research

Worldwide

Vaping

Nicotine analogues emerging in e-cigarettes to evade regulations

Tests show products contain widely variable amounts of compounds with unknown risks

Venezuela’s contested presidential election brings both chaos and hope

The country’s scientific enterprise is at a crisis point, but many believe a González presidency would bring the dawn of a new era for Venezuelan research

Explainer: Why drug shortages happen and how can we reduce them?

Record-high numbers of drugs are in short supply, from chemotherapy and antibiotics to hormone replacements

Two large open ended pipes emerging from a large industrial white box of a carbon capture system

Carbon capture gets personalised touch to match best tech with right location

Holistic analysis combines models and experiments to find the sorbent that works for each industrial site

Warning that solar geoengineering could cause unexpected regional heating

Aerosol modelling study injects note of caution on strategy to control warming

Oil and gas industry emissions are not on track to hit climate goals

Several big firms have rolled back their targets, saying governments need to set pace with policy

Analysis of three French chemistry labs shows how they could halve their carbon footprint by 2030

Open-source tool helps researchers evaluate a series of carbon mitigation strategies

Indian student

Indian scheme to provide 300 research grants for women

The announcement made by India’s science and technology minister aims to foster more cross-disciplinary research

Robert Mokaya

Next president of the Royal Society of Chemistry will be Robert Mokaya

University of Nottingham chemist will begin his tenure in 2026

Female scientists working in a lab

Gender equality report highlights progress and challenges for women in research

41% of the world’s researchers are female, but women are underrepresented as authors of papers and patents

Humphry Davy

Humphry Davy’s whole story – warts and all – deserves to be told

Offensive comments about other races and cultures are part of his legacy too