Phillip Broadwith
As Business editor, my aim is to highlight to readers the exciting and innovative chemistry going on in the commercial sector, as well as keeping you abreast of trends and developments in the world of chemistry businesses.
From the point I left school, my aim was to join the pharmaceutical industry. A gap year and summer placements in company labs, and a PhD in organic synthesis followed.
But halfway through my PhD I entered a writing competition run by the Daily Telegraph. I managed to win – somewhat to my own surprise. That changed my perspective and made me think that I should consider writing more seriously as a career. I joined the Royal Society of Chemistry just before submitting my thesis, and luckily a position with Chemistry World came up a few months later. I sometimes miss the thrills (less so the spills) of lab work, but interacting with world-leading scientists and industrialists, as well as learning new things on a daily basis more than makes up for it.
PodcastSofosbuvir
The hepatitis C drug that made waves when first launched – quicker to work and with fewer side effects than existing drugs, but it came with a hefty price tag
- Opinion
Jumping the vaccine queue
Deals between companies and rich governments offset manufacturing risks, but must not compromise supplies to those in need
- Research
Options expanded for origin of Earth’s water
Enstatite chondrite meteroites contain enough hydrogen to have supplied three to five times the total mass of water in Earth’s oceans
- Opinion
Facing the challenge of vaccine trials
Russia’s Covid-19 gamble is a stark contrast to even accelerated clinical programmes
- Opinion
Looking beyond the next wave
We need to apply lessons from Covid-19 to tackle antimicrobial resistance and climate change
- Podcast
Book club – The Alchemy of Us by Ainissa Ramirez
Materials scientist Ainissa Ramirez’s new book uncovers the human side of world-changing inventions
- Opinion
Hopes and fears for remdesivir
Available resources for testing coronavirus treatments need to be used wisely
- Review
Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put In Us and On Us
George Zaidan’s first book sets out to disentangle the confusing – and often conflicting – advice surrounding everyday items from processed food to sunscreen and beyond.
- Podcast
Book Club – Ingredients by George Zaidan
We discuss George Zaidan’s Ingredients, a book that promises to make chemistry more fun than Hogwarts
- Business
Getting ideas across
In a diverse industry like chemicals, we need to make sure we’re open to learning from unexpected angles.
- Opinion
Time for industry to show its humanity
Companies need to demonstrate community spirit in the face of the coronavirus pandemic
- Opinion
Fossil industries promise net emissions reductions
Can the oil industry really curb its carbon output fast enough to impact climate targets?
- Opinion
Startup EQRx claims it can revolutionise drug discovery
If it can deliver reasonable drugs at knock-down prices, will providers be convinced?
- Business
Deadly explosion at ethylene oxide plant in Spain
Two employees killed and seven others injured at Iqoxe plant in Tarragona
- Business
Two dead at US industrial tank cleaning site
Workers overcome by fumes in enclosed tanker truck
- Review
Antimony, Gold, and Jupiter’s Wolf: How the Elements Were Named
Accessible to chemists and non-chemists alike, this book traces the evolution of our understanding of the nature of matter itself
- Podcast
Book Club – Antimony, Gold, and Jupiter’s Wolf by Peter Wothers
We talk about chemist Peter Wothers’ first popular science book that uncovers the surprising origins of the elements’ names
- Opinion
When should employees share profits from inventions?
Glucose monitor inventor wins £2m payout from Unilever after claiming his work provided ’outstanding benefit’
