Crispr gene-editing booster molecule can damage DNA far from target site
Researchers warn of unwanted side effects with genome editing chaperone
Hunt for life should search for minerals as well as water, Chinese scientists claim
Serpentine minerals form in warm water and break down to key ingredients for life
Iontronic gel droplets detect beating heart tissue
Microscale hydrogels converted into biocompatable electrical components
Incorrect pKa values have slipped into chemical databases and could distort drug design
Confusion in zwitterionic compounds leads to misrepresented data in widely used repositories such as ChEMBL
All-inorganic perovskite solar cells excel with stabilising ligand
Spaghetti-like nanofibres made by electrospinning wheat flour
Programmable nanostructures created with DNA origami
Cellulose and chitin foam can remove nearly all microplastics from water
Metal–organic framework captures carbon dioxide at industrially relevant temperatures
Light-driven method simplifies synthesis of complex heterocycles
Highlights
How tyres are turning green
As the shift to using renewable and recycled materials in car tyres accelerates, Nina Notman talks to the manufacturers driving the change
20 years. 20 chemists. 20 stories. Part 2
How has chemistry changed in the last two decades?
The new signs bringing greater understanding to organic chemistry
Rebecca Trager speaks to a US team developing a sign language lexicon for chemistry concepts that combines form with meaning to make the field more accessible for everyone
The health of chemistry across the pipeline
More students in the UK are studying chemistry at A-level than 20 years ago, but how does that translate to universities?
Clearing up the compostable plastic mess
Rather than a potential triumph, the compostable plastics we use look increasingly like a tragedy. Andy Extance looks at the problems and seeks solutions
Topics
AI tool learns to build molecules fragment by fragment
Software tasked with designing a type-II kinase inhibitor suggests 97 candidates in 10 minutes, three of which were both synthesisable and effective at micromolar and nanomolar concentrations
Large language models are better than humans at answering chemistry questions
AI models outperform human chemists in every topic area. But are they really better chemists?
AI robots work together to perform autonomous synthesis and analysis
System offers route for rapid testing, analysis and interpretation of a wide range of chemistries
Teaching enzymes new reactions through genetic code expansion and directed evolution
Anthony Green’s research group at the University of Manchester, UK, reengineers enzymes to have catalytic functions beyond those found in nature
Lead found in Beethoven’s hair reveals new insight into his ailing health
Kidney and liver problems that killed the composer, as well as hearing loss, are associated with high lead levels
Chemical analysis reveals origins of early English silver coins
Byzantine silver plates were melted down to make many of the first Anglo-Saxon coins
Using analytical chemistry to illuminate the unlisted ingredients in tattoo inks
Discovery that more than 80% of the tattoo inks sampled had unlisted ingredients prompts New York-based lab to launch a website providing chemical information to tattoo artists and their clients
Paul Anastas: ‘I’m proudest of being part of a global green chemistry community’
The father of green chemistry on his love of the environment, striving for unattainable perfection and breathing life into an old town library
Science needs to get its house in order when it comes to energy use and waste
Labs have an outsized environmental footprint but solutions are within reach
Redox reactions ‘mine’ old fluorescent light bulbs for europium
In just three simple steps rare earth element can be recovered, avoiding ‘ecologically devastating’ mining
Chemists funded to cut the environmental footprint of their labs
The Royal Society of Chemistry to support 33 projects in 11 countries aiming to make chemistry research greener
Analysis of three French chemistry labs shows how they could halve their carbon footprint by 2030
Open-source tool helps researchers evaluate a series of carbon mitigation strategies
There’s a world of chemistry in water
Managing our most precious resource
Extracting treasure from trash
The corpus of scientific literature needs a drastic clean-up
Thousands protest higher education budget cuts in the Netherlands
Demonstrations in The Hague were attended by around 20,000 people
Reprieve for University of Reading’s chemistry department
Proposed closure has been averted although MSc and MChem programmes will end
The narrative CV: a step towards more inclusive science?
Exploring an alternative to a traditional list of achievements
The new signs bringing greater understanding to organic chemistry
Rebecca Trager speaks to a US team developing a sign language lexicon for chemistry concepts that combines form with meaning to make the field more accessible for everyone