Rachel Brazil
Rachel has been a freelance science writer for almost a decade.
Based in London, she writes for a variety of publications on scientific areas, including chemistry, materials science, biomedical and pharmaceutical science, and science and innovation policy.
Prior to this, she worked in a number of scientific organizations, including the RSC, the Royal Institution and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta). From 2006–2010 she ran Nesta's national researcher development programme, Crucible. Focused on encouraging creativity and stimulating interdisciplinary encounters between early career researchers, Crucible has now been adopted by a number of UK Universities.
Rachel herself has an interdisciplinary academic background, with degrees in chemistry and a PhD in archaeological conservation. She is also a trainer for the British Council’s Researcher Connect programme, teaching in China, Russia and Mexico.
FeatureThe function of folding
Can chemists make molecules that fold up as well as proteins? Rachel Brazil talks to the people trying to create foldamers
- Careers
UK universities prepare for a new academic year
Much uncertainty remains as chemistry departments plan how they’ll resume undergraduate teaching
- Business
Developing antiviral mask technology in a pandemic
Surface chemistry strategies play a pivotal role in personal protective equipment that can neutralise the Sars-CoV-2 virus
- Feature
Supporting the chemistry community
The Chemists’ Community Fund – formerly the Benevolent Fund – has been helping people for 100 years. Rachel Brazil looks at how it works, now it may be more needed than ever before
- Opinion
Eunice Foote: the mother of climate change
The first person to link carbon dioxide to atmospheric warming has almost been forgotten. Rachel Brazil uncovers her story
- Feature
The weirdness of water
Can we explain the strange properties of water by thinking of it as two different liquids? Rachel Brazil dives into the ongoing debate
- Careers
Moving towards fairer academic rewards
New incentive systems take into account more than just a researcher’s publication history
- Feature
Can chemists crack our cells’ sugar code?
Rachel Brazil talks to the scientists trying to understand the sweet mystery of the glycome
- Business
From philanthropy to sustainability
Corporate Social Responsibility in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries is changing
- Feature
Borrowing scientific theories
Can re-purposed science help us understand more than the physical world? Rachel Brazil talks to the scientists trying to play swap
- Careers
Developing colour-changing technologies
Lauren Bowker and Louise Anderson of The Unseen explain how they’re fusing materials chemistry and art
- Feature
Chemical clocks for archaeological artefacts
Radiocarbon dating is a standard technique, but what if your artefacts are inorganic? Rachel Brazil finds out how to accurately age pottery and even metals
- Feature
Superhydrophobic materials from nature
Chemists who want to make materials that repel water but do not contain fluorocarbons are taking their inspiration from nature, Rachel Brazil finds
- Careers
Are chemical engineering and biochemistry their own disciplines?
Exploring the edges of the chemical science family
- Feature
Science in microgravity
How does gravity affect chemistry and biology? More than you might think – and you don’t have to visit space to find out, as Rachel Brazil discovers
- Feature
Science, suffrage and misogyny
100 years after women could first vote in UK general elections, Rachel Brazil looks back at their fight for professional equality in chemistry
- Careers
The unsung heroes of the lab
Why technicians need more recognition for their essential role in science
