James Urquhart
James is a freelance science journalist and writer based near Edinburgh. With a background in biology, science communication and history of science, James' interest in chemistry have grown over his years' of contributing to Chemistry World since 2006. He has previously worked for New Scientist as a video and multimedia producer and he also writes about nature and the outdoors, so he can often be found wandering the mountains of Scotland with a camera close to hand.
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Mineral-extracting microorganism could solve early Earth’s nitrogen-fixing mystery
Ancient microorganisms could have extracted vital nitrogen compounds using molybdenum mined from rocks
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Water-splitting reaction reversal could extract lithium more sustainably and cheaply
Environmentally-friendly electrochemistry could cut extraction costs by 40%
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AI trained on photos of salt ‘stains’ can predict their chemical composition
Imaging could become a simple way to identify inorganic salt crystals on other planets
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Glassy gel superpolymer is sticky and can self-heal but is also hard yet stretchy
New class of polymer owes its properties to ionic liquid solvent
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Recycled construction waste could cut cement and steel’s carbon footprint
Cement can be regenerated during steel recycling in an electric arc furnace
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Genetic engineering feat coaxes yeast to produce valuable vaccine compound
Yeast could head off supply fears for vaccines ingredient by replacing soapbark tree as source of adjuvant
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Playing with plastic toy building bricks creates microplastic and nanoplastic pollution
Effects of such microscopic plastic particle on health is unknown but scientists urge caution – and more research
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AI predicts vape flavours can break down into potentially harmful compounds when heated
Flavours may decompose into harmful carbonyls, alkenes and aromatics when heated
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Light-driven enzyme engineered and repurposed to catalyse unnatural reaction
Directed evolution used to create photoenzyme that can perform new-to-nature radical cyclisation
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Cross-coupling technique cracks open alcohols for chemical synthesis
A new alcohol–alcohol cross coupling reaction could become a powerful new tool for synthetic chemists
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Canadian oil tar sands operations emit far more pollution than reported
Analysis of all types of organic pollution reveals emissions underreported by as much as 6300%
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Photochemistry converts dry-cleaning solvent waste into useful chemicals
One-pot reaction offers way to upcycle industrial solvent waste
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Biocatalysis breakthrough enables synthesis of lactam building blocks for drugs
Enzymatic cyclisation of oxazolone reagents offers a cheap and simple route to important antibiotic precursor
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DNA-damaging device could make mutant discovery safer and simpler
Cool microplasma jets create a stream of radicals that induce mutations
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Assembly theory puts chemistry centre stage to explain molecular complexity and life’s origins
Concept that attempts to join physics and biology via chemistry met with interest but also harsh criticism
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Cryo-EM scaffold supports imaging of small proteins previously tricky to study
Improved understanding of the structure of small proteins could aid drug designers
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Strings that draw-up brine could help supply the world with lithium
Concept takes lithium extraction into the third dimension away from cumbersome, slow pools of brine
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Unexpected reactivity of silica places question mark over safety of food additives
Discovery that silica particles – thought to be inert – can oxidise thiols requires further investigation
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Protein folding stability set to be unravelled on a massive scale
Technique can analyse a million protein sequences at a time to provide data for machine learning models
- Article
Light-activated molecular motor drives drug delivery
Drug-delivery system is a ‘step towards using molecular motors in the clinic’