Woman on top of bin with crumpled paper

Opinion

The art of failing forward

Negative results still mean positive progress

Tired man working late

Opinion

Can scientific curiosity and pressure to work long hours be balanced with well-being?

Younger researchers must beware the trap that sees their scientific fervour take over their lives

Lego periodic table

News

Campaign launched to get Lego periodic table playset out there

Spanish scientist wants people to vote for his spiral table to get Lego to bring it to life

Label on a bottle of dichloromethane

News

A year on from the announcement of the dichloromethane ban, US research labs brace for change

Trump administration appears to be backing the Biden rule so universities are moving to comply

Women in medical waiting room

Feature

Fixing medicine’s gender gap

For centuries, the default subject in medicine research and training has been the male. Julia Robinson talks to the scientists and clinicians trying to improve things for the other 51% of humanity

Opinion

The women-led health projects doing things differently

Innovative approaches to awareness and participation

Opinion

How feminist bioethics can improve women’s health

From correcting research imbalances to placing value on lived experiences

Careers

Time off for menstruation is a good idea. Period.

Menstrual leave can improve working conditions for all employees

Highlights

Women in medical waiting room

Fixing medicine’s gender gap

For centuries, the default subject in medicine research and training has been the male. Julia Robinson talks to the scientists and clinicians trying to improve things for the other 51% of humanity

Woman moving from one table to another in a restaurant

Managing the menopause

The end of ovulation will affect almost all women, but current treatments could be improved. Rachel Brazil reports on the efforts to find a better solution

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

Women in medical waiting room

Fixing medicine’s gender gap

For centuries, the default subject in medicine research and training has been the male. Julia Robinson talks to the scientists and clinicians trying to improve things for the other 51% of humanity

Bernadine Healy

Opinion

The women-led health projects doing things differently

Innovative approaches to awareness and participation

Woman moving from one table to another in a restaurant

Feature

Managing the menopause

The end of ovulation will affect almost all women, but current treatments could be improved. Rachel Brazil reports on the efforts to find a better solution

Group photo

Careers

The All-Ireland Network for Gender Equality in Chemistry is going for gold

Sharing best practices across chemistry departments to create better working environments and get Athena Swan accreditation

News

Under legal pressure American Chemical Society ends diversity programme

The society is replacing its 30-year-old Scholars Program for minorities with a larger one that does not consider race

Opinion

‘Equality means more than passing laws’

How to make chemistry spaces inclusive of all genders

News

Analysis reveals ethnic minority applicants’ grant success rates still lower

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

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

Robyn Norton

Robyn Norton: ‘We needed to make sure that women were included’

The pioneering global health researcher on the importance of including women in medical research, face-to-face networking and kindness

Willie May

Willie May: ‘We need to find and support the “missing millions”’

The analytical chemist on growing up Black in Alabama in the 1950s and 1960s and his journey through NIST, academia and the AAAS presidency

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

Women of Salerno and Trota

Opinion

How feminist bioethics can improve women’s health

From correcting research imbalances to placing value on lived experiences

Étienne François Geoffroy and his table of affinities

Opinion

Symbols and tables in chemistry

Looking beyond today’s periodic table

Opinion

In search of truth and rules

To codify and predict ever more complex phenomena is one of science’s great drivers

Opinion

Classifications, racial discrimination and Covid-19

Lessons with philosophical significance for how we group people and objects

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

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

Donna Nelson with a tornado

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

Frankenstein set

Opinion

Exploring the on-screen image of chemists

From Frankenstein to Breaking Bad and beyond

Women of Salerno and Trota

Opinion

How feminist bioethics can improve women’s health

From correcting research imbalances to placing value on lived experiences

Opinion

Symbols and tables in chemistry

Looking beyond today’s periodic table

Opinion

Way’s double silicates and what else he dug up from the soil

John Thomas Way’s practical advice also produced the first quantitative observations of ion exchange

Careers

The All-Ireland Network for Gender Equality in Chemistry is going for gold

Sharing best practices across chemistry departments to create better working environments and get Athena Swan accreditation

News

Under legal pressure American Chemical Society ends diversity programme

The society is replacing its 30-year-old Scholars Program for minorities with a larger one that does not consider race

Woman on top of bin with crumpled paper

Opinion

The art of failing forward

Negative results still mean positive progress

Tired man working late

Opinion

Can scientific curiosity and pressure to work long hours be balanced with well-being?

Younger researchers must beware the trap that sees their scientific fervour take over their lives

News

A year on from the announcement of the dichloromethane ban, US research labs brace for change

Trump administration appears to be backing the Biden rule so universities are moving to comply

Careers

Time off for menstruation is a good idea. Period.

Menstrual leave can improve working conditions for all employees

Careers

Workplace support for menstruation and menopause

The chemical industry and universities are doing more to give chemists what they need to manage their menstrual health

News

ERC increases funding offer to support scientists moving to Europe

Move is part of global efforts to attract researchers dismayed by the funding chaos in the US

Woman on top of bin with crumpled paper

Opinion

The art of failing forward

Negative results still mean positive progress

Dance your PhD winner

News

Food chemist takes top prize of annual Dance your PhD contest

Interpretive dance explains thesis on why chillis burn and menthol cools

Man placing substance in a bucket, with gardening tools in the background

Opinion

Making myself at home in the lab

How experiments in a garden shed grew from a hobby to a profession

Woman reading lab report to chemical glassware

Opinion

I use storytelling to write great lab reports

A formal writeup of an experiment has much in common with a thrilling story

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

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’

Opinion

Take part in the #ChemistryConversations challenge

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