Katrina Krämer
After finishing my A-levels, I wanted to study arts or languages, but then decided that being a chemist in a white coat was definitely cooler.
So I went on and spent ten years studying chemistry in Germany, Spain and the UK, before realising that not working in a lab can also be fun. After one year in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s graduate trainee scheme, I joined Chemistry World first as editorial assistant and now as science correspondent.
My favourite CAS number is 102-54-5.
ResearchLight catalyst breaks mirror symmetry in first reverse racemisation
Transformation makes single mirror image molecules in a ‘completely different way of doing enantioselective chemistry’
ResearchDwarf planet Ceres turns out to be extra-carbony
Asteroid belt’s largest object, thought to be a piece of rock, contains up to 20% carbon
ResearchWeird mechanism behind catnip compound’s biosynthesis uncovered
Nepetalactone – the compound cats go crazy for – is made by a two-step procedure that is unlike any other in terpenoid biosynthesis
NewsX-ray crystallographer to oversee Rosalind Franklin Institute
Structural biologist James Naismith to become first director of UK’s new national life sciences institute
ResearchComputation trick cuts total synthesis from 27 to nine steps
Quantum mechanical modelling shows speedy route to terpene natural product
NewsChemists Rosalind Franklin and Dorothy Hodgkin in the running for new face of £50 note
Other favourites to adorn the new polymer note are Stephen Hawking, Ada Lovelace and Margaret Thatcher
NewsKing of kilograms is no more as metric system gets a makeover
Metre convention countries have agreed to redefine four of the seven SI base units and link them to immutable natural constants
NewsWhy the kilogram is changing forever
The way we decide the weight of everything on Earth is wrong
ResearchPhosphorus beats palladium in connecting nitrogen rings
An entirely metal-free reaction goes where no traditional cross-coupling has gone before – to link pyridines
ResearchHydrogen sulfide surprises as it's discovered to have hydrogen bonds
Nobel laureate Linus Pauling was wrong – H2S does form hydrogen bonds after all
ResearchEngineered protein mimics photosynthesis to capture carbon
Genetically modified enzyme rivals heavy metal catalysts in photochemical carbon dioxide reduction
ResearchMercury poisoning test gets it wrong for palladium catalysts
The 100-year-old mercury drop test to distinguishing between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalyst is not as reliable as chemists thought
NewsAction plan launched to tackle gender inequality and bullying in chemistry
Bullying helpline and childcare grants among measures outlined in Royal Society of Chemistry report that reveals why chemistry has an equality problem
ResearchBond-breaking reaction chops up wood chemical
Reaction that splits biphenols in two could convert lignin into useful chemicals
ResearchCool MOF could make for greener air con
A porous material could unlock water’s cooling potential in energy-efficient fridges and air conditioners
ResearchFirst four-twist aromatic molecule made
A di-palladium complex with 54 π electrons is the first quadruply twisted aromatic molecule
ResearchElectron still spherical despite efforts to prove otherwise
Despite increasingly sensitive measurements, the electron has no dipole moment that would hint at exotic new particles
ResearchMolecular archery allows chemists to see how bonds form
Scientists shoot the world’s smallest projectiles – individual molecules – and use them to study how reactions happen
ResearchChunky catalyst mimics enzyme to tackle tough reactions
Tricky Diels–Alder reactions or Mukaiyama aldol additions – a bulky chiral catalyst can do them all by squeezing substrates into its chiral pocket
