Highlights

Illustration of a scientist lighting the interior of a battery with a torch/flashlight

Studying materials in action

Experiments on battery electrodes and fuel cell catalysts while they’re being used – operando spectroscopy – can revolutionise our understanding of these crucial materials. Clare Sansom reports

Graphic with large F and several bottles of pills

Putting the F in pharma

Adding fluorine to drug molecules can be tricky, but is often worthwhile. Rachel Brazil talks to the chemists trying to tame the ninth element

Round table discussion

Low concentration chemicals spur toxicological debate

Improved analytical techniques mean tiny amounts of endocrine disrupting compounds or PFAS can be found in many places. But is it a problem? Anthony King talks to the scientists on both sides of the fence

Closeup on a blister pack with male contraceptive pills

On the trail of the male contraceptive pill

As multiple novel male contraception compounds enter clinical trials, is family planning about to undergo a second revolution? James Mitchell Crow reports

Paper shredder shredding a protein structure

The promise of drugs that send proteins to the shredder

Andy Extance charts how research into revolutionary targeted protein degradation therapies is moving from serendipity to strategic discovery

Topics

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Seed oil-based polymer should survive a day in the rain but degrade within years in the sea

Researchers create polyesteramides from brassylic acid and explore their potential as a replacement for polyethylene

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 

Biomass, plastic waste and carbon dioxide feedstocks key to cutting chemical industry’s emissions

Royal Society report warns that without intervention defossilisation of the chemicals sector will take many decades

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

The AAAS website on a screen

AAAS leadership speaks out against Trump administration’s attacks on science

President of world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society warns that next month could be most important in history of US science

People giving robot instructions

Publishers need to provide guidelines on use of AI in research, says Wiley

Feedback from almost 5000 researchers helped inform publishing giant’s report

Science faculty set to be hit by redundancy proposals at University of East Anglia

Strike called over plans to cut 160 staff in all – including 22 in science – as part of cost-cutting measures 

UK visa policy ‘an act of national self-harm’, says Lords’ science committee

Inflexible and expensive visa system puts country at competitive disadvantage in global race for talent

Pay increase for UKRI-funded PhD students is biggest since 2003

Postgraduate pay campaign welcomes increase but points to years of erosion of stipends