Andy Extance
Before becoming a full-time science writer, Andy Extance worked for six and a half years in early-stage drug discovery research, followed by brief stint in silicone adhesive and rubber manufacturing.
However, when he had his first feature – on a cause of common heart-related problems in new drug candidates – published in Chemistry World in 2004, the course of his career shifted. After working as news editor for Compound Semiconductor magazine, he went freelance in 2009. Today Andy’s science writing explores everything related to chemistry, from Earth’s environment to space, from food to fusion, and from solar cells to how we smell.
ArticleScrambling and gambling to scale up Covid-19 medicines
Organisations work towards making billions of doses of products not yet proven to work
- Feature
The difficulties of drugging our brains
Following the withdrawal of many large pharma companies from central nervous system research, Andy Extance finds new drug development patterns are emerging
- Research
Molecular experiments hope to reveal new physics
Detecting extremely short-lived radium fluoride can explore standard model’s limits
- Research
Amazing slow motion video catches hydrogen flames going fractal
The clean fuel can combust with potentially devastating beauty in narrow gaps when mixed with air
- Business
Taking responsibility for waste
How well are companies that produce and use plastics living up to their duty?
- Research
Palladium catalyst voyage prompts carbon–carbon bond formation rethink
Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling catalyst atoms leach away but then return to their supports
- Research
Quantum chemistry simulations offers beguiling possibility of ‘solving chemistry’
Academics and tech giants are using neural networks to represent electronic behaviour
- News
Organisations mobilise to fight Covid-19
‘War effort’ seeks to provide hand sanitiser, protective equipment, ventilators and tests
- Research
Textbook structure rules formulated by Linus Pauling 90 years ago prove unreliable
Just 13% of 5000 oxides found to fulfil all five coordination geometry predictions
- Business
The race to fight coronavirus
While genome sequences enable testing and vaccine efforts, companies are donating existing antiviral drugs to explore repurposing
- Feature
Catching the polluters
Measurement techniques can pinpoint emitters like unroadworthy trucks and broken gas pipes, finds Andy Extance, but are not yet widespread
- Research
First Crispr cancer trial in humans shows safety and durability
Immune-cell modifications target tumours and lift the PD-1 ‘brake’
- Research
Metallic hydrogen reveals itself under mounting pressure
Robust data help close in on prized room temperature superconductor
- News
Bird droppings to help cut the crap in graphene doping papers
Dramatic illustration shows there’s little value in doping graphene electrodes to make better water splitting catalysts
- Opinion
Ellie Knaggs and tetrahedral carbon
Ellie Knaggs’ claim to be the first to use x-rays to prove carbon’s tetrahedral bonding in molecules has been overlooked, finds Andy Extance
- Research
Rhenium plays starring role in bond movie
Controllable energy input from transmission electron microscope captures atoms dissociating and recombining
- Feature
Separating turmeric fact from fiction
Thousands of papers have been published on curcumin’s healing potential, but its usefulness is not yet proven, finds Andy Extance
- Research
9-minute battery charging could accelerate electric vehicles’ prospects
Rapid replenishment at 60˚C adds 200 miles of range, and suppresses chemical degradation problems
- Research
The race is on to make the first room temperature superconductor
Chemists now appear to be within touching distance of a long sought-after goal as the synergy between theory and experiment delivers new materials
- Feature
Single-atom catalysis
Single atom and hierarchical nanopore catalysts are reducing the need for precious metals, and could clean up the energy and chemical industries, finds Andy Extance
