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.
NewsUniversity of Brighton withdraws core chemistry courses bucking nationwide trend
While the number of universities offering chemistry degrees has risen in recent years, Brighton is winding its up due to falling student numbers
- News
Europeans want nanomaterial products to be labelled, survey shows
While awareness of nanomaterials in everyday products remains low, 87% of people want them noted, surveys in five European countries shows
- Podcast
Ionic liquids
Liquid salts, ionic melts, fused salts, or ionic glasses – call them what you like, these much-hyped solvents show great promise
- News
Researchers condemn UK funder’s decision to curb PhD extensions
UK Research and Innovation has ‘failed’ postgraduate students struggling during the pandemic, claims open letter signed by more than 1000 researchers
- Podcast
Book club – Written in Bone
From the horrific to the absurd, forensic anthropologist Sue Black’s new book is a true pageturner
- Research
Pompeii’s paintings imperilled by precipitates
Volcanic ash protected the city’s frescos for centuries, now it might hasten their decline
- Research
First definitive proof of water on the moon
Ice could be a resource for future lunar missions
- News
100 UK scientists receive more than £100 million for blue skies research
Fourth funding round of government’s future leaders programme aims to turn scientific ideas into products and services
- Podcast
Book club – The End of Everything
It’s the end times for our universe with five scenarios that of how it might meet its ultimate demise
- Feature
How Crispr went from niche to Nobel
Katrina Kramer tells the story of how Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna developed the gene editing tool that won them the 2020 Nobel prize in chemistry
- Research
Superbenzenes now do the twist too
Supertwistacene is the first configurationally stable chiral graphene nanoribbon
- Research
Chiral benzyne made with single handedness for the first time
First enantioenriched aryne atropisomer can create chiral nanographene and anthracene structures
- News
Crispr–Cas9 gene-editing inventors win chemistry Nobel prize
2020 chemistry award goes to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier
- News
Medicine Nobel prize goes to discoverers of hepatitis C virus
Harvey Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles Rice share prize for uncovering the disease-causing agent affecting more than 71 million people
- Podcast
Oxybenzone
This summer’s extreme weather prompts Katrina Krämer to investigate the history of sunblock and the ingredient blamed by some for bleaching coral reefs
- Research
Chemistry Nobel predictions range from organometallic chemistry to DNA synthesis
Crispr is favoured by chemists while publication analysis forecasts winners working on nanocrystals, organometallic chemistry and supramolecular self-assembly
- Research
Salt crystal grows legs to avoid slippery surface
Sodium chloride’s self-lifting crystallisation has been observed for the first time
- Research
Hybrid light–matter particles offer tantalising new way to control chemistry
Early experiments are revealing that vacuum-field catalysis could make reactions happen with mirrors and nothingness
- Research
Ultra-fluorinated cyclohexane shows off two faces
1,2,3,4,5,6‐hexakis(trifluoromethyl)‐cyclohexane is the most sterically crowded all-cis derivative
- Podcast
Book club – United We Are Unstoppable
60 young climate activitsts from 41 countries tell their stories of fighting for a sustainable future
