All Chemistry World articles in December 2025
2025 in review: Chemistry school woes, the Trump administration, generative AI and pollution all captured headlines this year. We round up the biggest stories of 2025. Plus the chemistry of port and the impact of asthma inhalers.
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Research‘Stimulating discovery’ leads to strategy to swap oxygen in saturated rings
Skeletal editing pushed beyond aromatic structures, sparking new opportunities in drug discovery
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NewsMore than 97% of electron microscope images remain unpublished
Huge datasets that would be a valuable training aid for AI are being lost
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OpinionThe lost treasure of electron microscopy
Unpublished images should be brought to light to aid science communication and speed up discovery
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NewsCardiff University scales back proposed cuts to chemistry department following consultation
Department still set to merge with two others but there will be no compulsory redundancies
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BusinessBASF sells coatings business to Carlyle in €7.7 billion deal
Deal covers automotive and surface treatment businesses and follows earlier sale of decorative paints
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ResearchDihydropyrazine-embedded macrocycles behave like supersized cycloalkanes
Giant molecular rings that mimic the puckered shapes of cyclobutane, cyclopentane and cyclohexane could offer new insights into conformational dynamics
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ResearchNeural network trained to classify crystal structure errors in MOF and other databases
Study serves as a reminder that machine learning models are only as good as the data they are trained on
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ResearchAll stirred up: chemical engineers refute claims that ‘stirring doesn’t matter’
Failing to mix reactions in heterogeneous or industrial systems could cause numerous issues and might even be dangerous, preprint claims
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NewsAI company will pay authors $1.5 billion in damages after using their copyrighted works to train its models
Academics set for payouts of $3000 for each book that was illegally downloaded
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ResearchThis fragment-based drug discovery library is designed to be sociable
Study targets a key bottleneck in hit to lead optimisation by designing fragments that are both structurally diverse and easy to elaborate
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ResearchQuantum tunnelling drives aromaticity flip-flop
Augmented pentalene structure could be a molecular Schrödinger’s cat, aromatic and antiaromatic at the same time
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NewsUK’s new national laboratories site will support ‘invisible infrastructure’ of measurements that keep world in sync
£20 million investment by LGC will boost country’s analytical and metrology capabilities
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BusinessAlgenesis cracks diisocyanate problem to make fully bio-based polyurethane
Process combines algal fermentation with flow chemistry and avoids hazardous phosgene
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BusinessJ&J now faces talc cancer claims in the UK
Alongside nearly 70,000 US lawsuits, over 3000 claimants have filed joint UK legal action
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ResearchCivet coffee kopi luwak’s reputedly superior flavour may have chemical basis
Coffee beans that have passed through the gut of Asian palm civet have more compounds associated with intense tastes
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NewsThe cost of a visa for a researcher moving to the UK is 22 times that of international average
Royal Society is warning that the high upfront costs are putting off talented researchers
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ResearchWater squeezed into 2D channels conducts electricity 100,000 times better
Network of quasi-2D hydrogen bonding may be responsible for effect
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ResearchTransforming toxic arsenic sludge into a valuable commodity for green technologies, electronics
A simple process extracts valuable pure arsenic metal from groundwater treatment waste
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ResearchAI tool paints bigger picture of global impact of millions of research grants, papers and patents
Team behind Funding the Frontier hope it will help funders and policymakers make better decisions but others worry system might favour ‘safe’ research
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ResearchA current take on the Swern oxidation
Electrochemical update to a classic reaction trades cryogenic conditions for room temperature, to selectively convert primary and secondary alcohols into aldehydes and ketones