CERN

News

Cern to end cooperation agreements with Russian-based researchers

From November, 500 scientists affiliated with Russian institutions will be cut off from Cern research facilities due to ongoing war in Ukraine

Nobel medal

News

The 2024 Nobel prize in chemistry as it happens – live

Join us as we follow all the developments in the run-up to the awarding of chemistry’s biggest prize

2024 Nobel prize in physics laureates

News

Physics Nobel prize goes to artificial neural networks and machine learning

Research inspired by how brains learn now powers cutting-edge technology in smartphones and scientific research

Nobel medal for auction

News

The fate of Nobel prize medals

Over the years, Nobel prize medals have been stolen, dissolved and auctioned off. We trace what happened to them and the stories they can tell us

News

UK launches £37m programme to uncover cultural heritage through chemistry

Funding will aid analysis of archaeological materials and preservation of artwork

News

Twelve Nobel laureates tell us about winning chemistry’s biggest prize

Winners from the last two decades look back on the day a call from Stockholm changed their lives

News

Royal Society releases hundreds of historic peer-review reports to the public

Archive includes Dorothy Hodgkin’s review of an early Crick and Watson paper on the structure of DNA

Highlights

A member of staff at a laboratory instructs some students on how to use a reaction set-up in a fume cupboard

The undergraduate lab practical transformation

Nina Notman speaks to the educators leading the charge to revamp how university students learn in the laboratory

20 years portraits

20 years. 20 chemists. 20 stories.

How has chemistry changed in the last two decades?

1959 Barbie

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

Different aspects of romantic love

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

Iron blade

The archaeologists saving Africa’s ironworking heritage

The fires of traditional African iron smelters burned out a century ago and now the researchers dedicated to uncovering their stories are disappearing from the continent too, writes Hayley Bennett

Group picture

The science education programme partnering with people in prison

Think Like a Scientist focuses on empowering students

Indian student

News

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

News

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

News

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

Webinar

LGBTQ+ in Stem: Using data to foster inclusion – Part 2

Learn about factors affecting attrition and retention of LGBTQ+ scientists

Opinion

Everyone belongs in the chemical sciences

Speaking up to make our workplaces more inclusive

Webinar

LGBTQ+ in Stem: Using data to foster inclusion – Part 1

Learn how UK and US institutions are working together to improve inclusivity in Stem

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

Carol Robinson

Carol Robinson: ‘I really wanted to wave the flag about technicians’

The mass spectrometry trailblazer on leaving school at 16 and waving the flag for technicians

An illustrated portrait of Ijeoma Uchegbu

Ijeoma Uchegbu: ‘My approach is always to be kind’

The innovative nanoscientist on the power of kindness and how she scrubbed eugenicists from campus buildings

Emmeline Edwards

Emmeline Edwards: ‘I connect the dots’

The Haitian-American neurochemist on her journey from Haiti to the US as a teenager, and her journey from chemistry to brain science

The Thinker on books

Opinion

How much science should there be in philosophy?

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

A model of a haemoglobin molecule

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

Opinion

The rise of techno-science

Appreciating technology’s role in understanding how the world works

Opinion

Do bond classifications help or hinder chemistry?

Ionic, covalent, metallic and more… but there’s debate about whether bonds are real at all

News

UK launches £37m programme to uncover cultural heritage through chemistry

Funding will aid analysis of archaeological materials and preservation of artwork

News

Royal Society releases hundreds of historic peer-review reports to the public

Archive includes Dorothy Hodgkin’s review of an early Crick and Watson paper on the structure of DNA

News

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

Webinar

LGBTQ+ in Stem: Using data to foster inclusion – Part 2

Learn about factors affecting attrition and retention of LGBTQ+ scientists

Three hands with a cup in each hand on a polka dot background

Opinion

Celebrating the coffee break

One of the most surprisingly productive parts of the day

A woman split in two between work and her home life

Careers

On your best behaviour

Which might be different at work and at home

Careers

The early-career engineer showcasing women in the chemical industry

Jordan Riddle explains how embracing change and extra curricular activities has benefited her work in chemical production

News

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

Opinion

Working in the chemical industries, plural

Despite often being presented as a monolith, there’s a huge variety of activities, working practices and reaction scales across industrial research

Careers

Long hours are a short-term solution for skills shortages

Instead, we need to invest in making careers more attractive

Genie in a bottle demo

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

Test tube taking off a computer screen

News

Global ‘census’ of chemistry on YouTube finds thriving ecosystem of indie producers

Chemistry channels are primarily made up of independents with no affiliation with an institution or organisation but a passion to talk science

Group picture

Opinion

The science education programme partnering with people in prison

Think Like a Scientist focuses on empowering students

The word chemistry in a dictionary

News

Chemistry body to create multi-language chemistry dictionary to avoid confusion

Dictionary will cover terms such as ‘electrolyte’ and ‘non-metal’

Careers

The chroniclers of science

Communication officers dedicate their careers to telling impactful stories

Careers

How to get experience for science communication officer roles

Five tips to build your skills and see if it’s a career for you

Opinion

What science communication can learn from a summer of sport

Alice Motion suggests ways scientists can take inspiration from how events like the Olympics engage with viewers