All articles by Neil Withers
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Opinion
The clean beauty movement highlights wider challenges in balancing chemical risks and benefits
The ‘clean beauty’ movement exemplifies broader challenges in how we evaluate chemical safety, balancing risks against benefits while avoiding regrettable substitutions.
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Opinion
Chemistry's capital C
From refinery scale to a nanosecond existence, carbon is everywhere – in life as well as chemistry
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Opinion
Polymorphs matter – especially when they might disappear
Disappearing polymorphs offer a fascinating example of the dark arts of crystallisation
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Opinion
Peering into the future of material characterisation
Operando analysis offers real-time data on what happens to devices at the atomic level
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Opinion
Can supercapacitors be the next energy superheroes?
Offering complementary properties to batteries, their time might be round the corner
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Opinion
Julia Kornfield: ‘I’ve often followed an instinct about a person’
The polymer expert on power imbalances and following her instinct
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Feature
Do other chemistry prizes predict the Nobels?
We’ve looked at the numbers so you don’t have to
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Opinion
The classic sandwich
Ferrocene turned our understanding of structure and bonding on its head
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Feature
Charting the rise in antimicrobial resistance
We look at the data behind antibiotic drug discovery and development, bacterial resistance and the financial problems with the current business model
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Opinion
The heavy appeal of liquid metals
The shiny and dense fluids offer both ancient mystery and future promise
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Opinion
Returning to the moon
It’s been a while, but space agencies are starting to plan their trips back to our satellite, with the goal of building semi-permanent bases
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Opinion
Nuclear wasted
Atomic energy has the potential to reduce our carbon footprint, but the problem of waste is devilishly complex
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Opinion
The incredible legacy of Tutankhamun
Three-thousand-year-old treasures can still enthral and inspire
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Feature
Visualising the Nobel nomination archive
Who nominated whom for the biggest prize in chemistry
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Opinion
The end of a long race?
The finishing line of the Covid-19 pandemic may be in sight, but we mustn’t stop running just yet
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Opinion
Bottling summer lightning
Our features editor reflects on how nature’s sound and light show affects the atmosphere, and the long track to harness fusion
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Opinion
An idea that clicked
Bioorthogonal reactions – doing chemistry inside living cells without blasting everything in sight – are no mean feat