All features
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Conserving Barbie from degradation
Although she is a cultural icon, conserving Barbie has its challenges: as with most plastic toys and dolls, she was not made to last. Rachel Brazil investigates how conservation scientists are approaching this sticky problem
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Superconductivity: the search and the scandal
Recent high profile controversies haven’t deterred scientists from searching for one of research’s ultimate prizes: room temperature superconductors. Kit Chapman reports on the claims
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The oceans’ climate challenge
Nina Notman speaks to the researchers unpicking the many ways the climate crisis is impacting our oceans – and vice versa
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The chemists dedicated to making drinking water safer
Across the world, scientists use a variety of techniques to analyse and treat water to ensure it’s safe for us to drink. Julia Robinson talks to some of the people involved
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Industry’s water sustainability crisis
As the chemical industry decarbonises, will it require more water? Angeli Mehta looks at whether there is enough to go round
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The surprising organic chemistry in interstellar space
Even in the bleak wastelands of interstellar space complex organic molecules seem to find a way to form. Anna Demming finds out how
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How microbes influence our brain health
Our gut microbiome has been linked to conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Anthony King reports on the connections
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Marvellous mixtures of metals
High entropy alloys, with anywhere from five or more different metals, have unusual properties and could find use in a variety of high-tech applications. Clare Sansom reports
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Small molecules that switch up cell development could transform medicine
Turning mature somatic cells back into flexible stem cells using small molecules could revolutionise medicine, especially for regeneration and cancer. Philip Ball reports
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The chemistry of love
There’s chemistry behind every step of a romantic relationship, from the initial spark to the pain of break up, as Zahra Khan discovers
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More than a mirror-image: left-handed nucleic acids
Now a biological reality, researchers are starting to figure out the many roles of left-handed nucleic acids such as Z-DNA – from immunity to controlling our genetics. Rachel Brazil reports
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Editing polymer backbones
Changing the chemical makeup of a polymer backbone could revolutionise how we make, use and even recycle plastics. James Mitchell Crow reports
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Testing times for tuberculosis
Nina Notman takes a look at the recent and upcoming diagnostic and screening innovations aiming to drive down the incidence of tuberculosis globally
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An alternative approach to baking
As more people want ingredients ‘free-from’ existing staples, Victoria Atkinson looks at the science behind substitutes for gluten, eggs and gelatine
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Cubanes help drugs take the strain
Medicinal chemists are increasingly exploring strained ring systems, George Barsted reports, believing they can serve as replacements for conventional building blocks in pharmaceuticals
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Is modern food lower in nutrients?
Studies suggest that our fruit and vegetables are losing nutrients. Bárbara Pinho examines the evidence and looks at the implications of a ‘nutrient collapse’
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The mechanical side of bonding
Synthetic chemists are finally mastering the assembly of interlocked molecules held together by the mechanical bond, find James Mitchell Crow
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Reaching into the non-covalent toolbox
Alongside supramolecular stalwarts, budding bonding forms are vying to be valuable, finds Andy Extance
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When a bond gets too extreme
Chemical bonds are part of the way chemists rationalise the behaviour of atoms in the conditions of the world around them. Tim Wogan looks at how they are affected when those conditions change
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The perchlorate Martian mystery
Rachel Brazil looks at how the compounds might have formed on our neighbouring planet and whether they could be useful for future exploration