Kit Chapman
After finishing my pharmacy degree at the University of Bradford (including a year working in community and hospital pharmacies), I decided to make the unconventional leap in to science journalism. I cut my teeth on magazines for GPs and pharmacists, before taking over campaigns on the British Medical Association’s website.
From there I headed back to pharmacy, managing all clinical content in The Pharmaceutical Journal and Clinical Pharmacist, before leaping at the chance to join the Chemistry World team. I also occasionally write a bit for the Daily Telegraph and pop up in assorted skeptical podcasts.
FeatureThe lithium rush
Move over, gold; lithium is now the metal in global demand. Kit Chapman untangles the global politics around the sought-after resource
- Research
Solar hydrogen production scaled up in real world test
Pilot plant could be stepping stone to industrial production of green hydrogen by splitting water
- Feature
The wonderful wizards of wood
Clever chemistry can turn humble timber into a sustainable material with many uses, Kit Chapman finds
- Business
Judge dismisses ranitidine lawsuits over lack of evidence
Drug degrades to produce nitrosamines, but the judge ruled the link between this and plaintiffs’ cancers could not be proven
- Research
‘Flip-flopping’ MOFs used to separate water isotopes
Porous materials with temperature controlled gateways can split heavy water from water by relying on differential diffusion effect
- News
Under pressure? Room temperature superconductivity paper retracted over data analysis
Questions over treatment of data led Nature to remove the paper over the authors’ objections
- Research
Technique can characterise actinides with just a microgram of a heavy element
Use of polyoxometalates offers chance to conduct in-depth research on heavy actinides chemistry
- Careers
The chemists leaving their country over personal ethics
Family matters and political views are leading researchers to pursue careers abroad
- Research
New technique reveals interactions inside indium nucleus
Study will help researchers understand how seemingly simple single-particle phenomena emerge from complex interactions among protons and neutrons
- Feature
A material future for fusion?
Nuclear fusion has been a dream for decades. Kit Chapman finds out about the latest developments that could help it fulfil its promise
- Opinion
Masataka Ogawa and the search for nipponium
Could a Japanese scientist, whose claim to have discovered an element was dismissed, been right all along? Kit Chapman investigates
- Opinion
William Knox, the only Black supervisor in the Manhattan Project
The story of the Knox family is one of education overcoming adversity, finds Kit Chapman
- Feature
The toxic tide of ship breaking
Kit Chapman explores the chemical cost of the most dangerous industry in the world
- Careers
The conference conundrum
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, is it time to rethink events for good?
- Research
Shortest-lived and lightest magnesium isotope ever too unstable to even attract electrons
Magnesium-18 cation has a fleeting half-life of 3 billion trillionths of a second
- News
Chemistry textbooks still portray men as scientists while women perform domestic duties
Unequal representation in terms of both roles and the number of women featured revealed
- Research
Berkelium complex opens door for future nuclear recycling
Complex is only the sixth ever created
- Research
Uranium’s strong covalent bond breaks periodic table predictions
Actinide’s unusual covalency could explain its ability to fix nitrogen
- Research
Heavy metal proteins are the secret weapon in ant bites
Protein-rich biomaterials containing zinc, manganese, copper and bromine allow ants, crabs and scorpions to pack more punch for their size
- Research
Actinium’s radius revised to solve cancer therapy mystery
For decades, scientists have been using the wrong ionic radius for one of Earth’s rarest element
