Jennifer Newton
As the daughter of a chemistry teacher, chemistry has always been in my blood. Teaching science for 5 weeks in Ghana when I was 16 confirmed my suspicions that I didn’t also want to be a teacher.
I studied natural sciences at the University Bath, doing a little bit of everything, mainly chemistry and pharmacology but no physics. My degree included a year-long industrial placement at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, part of the Ministry of Defence – although if I told you what I did there, I’d have to kill you.
I joined the Royal Society of Chemistry in September 2008, collecting over 4 years of experience in journals publishing, before moving to Chemistry World in April of 2013. Cooking and gardening dominate when I'm not at work.
- Review
Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty and Time
A fast-paced journey through the entire history of humans, trying to answer the question of what makes us different from other animals
- Podcast
Book Club – Transcendence by Gaia Vince
We discuss prize-winning author Gaia Vince’s new book Transcendence, and discover how collaboration made humans Earth’s most successful species
- Opinion
Electrolytes are no longer a postscript to the battery story
Just because electrolytes are effectively inert, doesn’t mean they can’t be sophisticated
- Podcast
Book Club – How to by Randall Munroe
We discuss xkcd comic creator Randall Munroe’s new book that deals out absurd – but scientifically accurate – advice for everyday problems
- Review
How to: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
Have you ever considered the practicalities of building a swimming pool out of cheese?
- Opinion
Only boring elements get bored
Prizes for best, most boring and most overlooked element up for grabs
- Opinion
Margaret Brimble: 'Spiroketals are my favourite molecules'
The New Zealand chemist on careers, creativity and why everything just has to be blue
- Opinion
The third degree on actinide covalency
The often ignored elements are attracting chemists’ attention again
- Opinion
Righting history
Archaeology can offer unique perspectives on our place in the world, but the field has some challenges to overcome along the way
- Review
Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
Matt Parker’s book shows just how serious the consequences of mathematical mistakes can be
- Opinion
‘I taught my local restaurant how to make noodles’
Organic chemistry maestro Jin-Quan Yu on football, food and cleaving the C–H bond
- Opinion
Chiral curiosities
The challenges posed by asymmetry go hand in hand with fascinating insights into developmental biology
- Review
Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome
Venki Ramakrishnan tells the story of his journey from physics student to chemistry Nobel laureate
- Research
Cluster fundamentals
Stefanie Dehnen discusses the exotic structures of inorganic chemistry’s middle ground
- Review
Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor
Is the Nobel prize advancing or hampering scientific progress?
- Opinion
The potential of promiscuity
Nobel recognition for a concept whose benefit to humankind is far from being truly realised
- Review
Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy
What went wrong on the 26 April 1986 disaster and what continued to go wrong in the days, weeks and years that followed
