‘The truth is supremely valuable and we cannot lie our way to it’
As a scientist with family in Iran, Derek Lowe finds his own government’s approach to truth alarming
Steve Liddle: ‘Try and do something different to what everyone else is doing’
The organometallic chemist on working with the f-elements, following your instinct and remaining grounded.
Traffic jams in the chemical plant
What happens between a big order coming in and going out?
Chemical recycling of plastics rises as oil crisis continues
Recovering feedstocks from hard-to-recycle plastic is potentially important in a more circular plastic economy
Sharpening chemical intuition
Chemists are moving beyond hand-waving explanations by quantifying factors like the anomeric effect and steric repulsion
The lost treasure of electron microscopy
Unpublished images should be brought to light to aid science communication and speed up discovery
My arcane and curious connection to metal-organic frameworks
Fernando Gomollón-Bel uncovers a link between his hometown and the 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry
Beyond selfies with Nobel laureates
Why young scientists must lead a new era of global collaboration
Our columnists
Philip Ball is an award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster who explores the history and philosophy of chemistry
Scientists claim to have found the two types of water that explain the liquid’s oddness
Discovery could shed new light on anomalies such as why water is densest at 4°C
Raychelle Burks is an associate professor in the US and an award-winning science communicator and broadcaster.
Experimenting with murder
A criminal mastermind made sure their unusual poison attack would be fatal
Nessa Carson is a synthetic organic research chemist based in Macclesfield, UK
Learning computational chemistry in a new role
A change of team brings new opportunities to build knowledge
Chemjobber is a US-based industry insider, telling tales of tank reactors and organic obstacles
Traffic jams in the chemical plant
What happens between a big order coming in and going out?
Derek Lowe is a medicinal chemist in the US, sharing wit and wisdom from a life spent in preclinical drug discovery
‘The truth is supremely valuable and we cannot lie our way to it’
As a scientist with family in Iran, Derek Lowe finds his own government’s approach to truth alarming
Chris Nawrat (aka BRSM) is a process chemist at a major pharmaceutical company in the US
(+)-Melicolone K
Sequential C–H activations open up the opportunity for an unusual transformation
Vanessa Seifert explores philosophical issues from the novel perspective of chemistry
Chemistry has always been women’s business
Female chemists played essential roles in developing chemical practice
Andrea Sella is a professor of inorganic chemistry in the UK with a passion for unravelling the unlikely origins of scientific kit
Harrison’s bimetallic strip and the problems with temperature control
Making thermostats possible – now we need to learn how to use them correctly
Research landscape
As a first-generation student, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing
And that brought challenges and unexpected opportunites
The chemist anthropologist
What new species remain to be discovered in the lab?
Some voices conspicuously silent when it comes to Trump’s science policies
Research-intensive universities have been targeted in an unprecedented and unrelenting manner since Donald Trump retook the White House on 20 January. In April, nearly a third of the 6000-plus members of the US National Academies of Sciences, which is a nonpartisan organisation charged with providing evidence-based science and technology advice ...
Drowning in a sea of fakery
Addressing rising fraud in the scientific literature is a huge issue that AI is set to exacerbate
Letters: September 2025
Readers discuss negative results, chemistry cold spots and more
What I learned from going back to university in my 30s
Advice for the young student (at heart)
Chemistry ‘deserts’ threaten to push poorer undergraduates out
Course and departmental closures in the UK are creating ‘cold spots’, leaving students high and dry
Industry landscape
‘The truth is supremely valuable and we cannot lie our way to it’
As a scientist with family in Iran, Derek Lowe finds his own government’s approach to truth alarming
Chemical recycling of plastics rises as oil crisis continues
Recovering feedstocks from hard-to-recycle plastic is potentially important in a more circular plastic economy
Sharpening chemical intuition
Chemists are moving beyond hand-waving explanations by quantifying factors like the anomeric effect and steric repulsion
Widening impact of conflict in Iran
Deyond hydrocarbons, helium and sulfur – byproducts of petroleum extraction – have also been critically affected by Iran’s blockade of Gulf exports
Letters: March 2026
Readers discuss the long-lasting effects of sabotage, a mix-up of Maxes, and how PFAS regulations might affect inhalers
Profiles
Steve Liddle: ‘Try and do something different to what everyone else is doing’
The organometallic chemist on working with the f-elements, following your instinct and remaining grounded.
Breaking bonds and bringing disciplines together to replace one of chemistry’s most controversial molecules
Rebecca Trager meets an organic chemist catalysing the search for BPA replacements by connecting synthetic chemists, data scientists, toxicologists and polymer chemists
How Thuc-Quyen Nguyen’s dreams of capturing the sun led her to organic electronics
Organic solar cell windows will enable the buildings of the future to be energy-neutral, she says
How Thuc-Quyen Nguyen’s dreams of capturing the sun led her to organic electronics
Organic solar cell windows will enable the buildings of the future to be energy-neutral, she says
Veronica Vaida: ‘Some Harvard faculty expressed puzzlement at having a woman colleague’
The renowned physical chemist and environmental scientist on growing up in Romania and forging her career as a woman in the US in the 1970s
Rethinking hydrogen peroxide production
Hydro-Oxy and Addible both aim to transform how industry produces and uses a ubiquitous oxidant.
Abigail Mortimer’s career in glassblowing
Since starting as a trainee 17 years ago, her collaborative creations have underpinned teaching and research at the University of York’s chemistry department
Alexandra Navrotsky: ‘I don’t think you attract people to science by big initiatives’
The nanogeoscientist on the importance of people to good science, the recent turnaround on diversity, equity and inclusion and why she will never be a professional artist
The summer I became a science journalist
By Mason Wakley
Mason Wakley on being a science writer intern at the Royal Society of Chemistry
I was almost robbed of my love for chemistry – but I fought my way back
By Anonymous chemistry student
An abusive lab member made my dream course a nightmare. By speaking up, I’m reclaiming my joy