Kit Chapman
After finishing my pharmacy degree at the University of Bradford (including a year working in community and hospital pharmacies), I decided to make the unconventional leap in to science journalism. I cut my teeth on magazines for GPs and pharmacists, before taking over campaigns on the British Medical Association’s website.
From there I headed back to pharmacy, managing all clinical content in The Pharmaceutical Journal and Clinical Pharmacist, before leaping at the chance to join the Chemistry World team. I also occasionally write a bit for the Daily Telegraph and pop up in assorted skeptical podcasts.
- Feature
Superconductivity: the search and the scandal
Recent high profile controversies haven’t deterred scientists from searching for one of research’s ultimate prizes: room temperature superconductors. Kit Chapman reports on the claims
- News
The story of how the most successful US–Russia scientific collaboration collapsed
Five jointly discovered superheavy elements completed the eighth row of the periodic but then Russian revanchism reared its head
- Research
Third room temperature superconductivity paper retracted as group’s claims lie in tatters
Accusations of data manipulation and misconduct now dog the US team that made what appeared to be astounding discoveries
- Research
Secrets of the purple smoke of first high explosive created by alchemists revealed
Microscopy study uncovers why fulminating gold releases colourful fumes
- News
Berkeley Lab to lead US hunt for element 120 after breakdown of collaboration with Russia
Fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sees US go it alone on efforts to synthesise new elements
- Feature
The lithium rush
Move over, gold; lithium is now the metal in global demand. Kit Chapman untangles the global politics around the sought-after resource
- Research
Solar hydrogen production scaled up in real world test
Pilot plant could be stepping stone to industrial production of green hydrogen by splitting water
- Feature
The wonderful wizards of wood
Clever chemistry can turn humble timber into a sustainable material with many uses, Kit Chapman finds
- Business
Judge dismisses ranitidine lawsuits over lack of evidence
Drug degrades to produce nitrosamines, but the judge ruled the link between this and plaintiffs’ cancers could not be proven
- Research
‘Flip-flopping’ MOFs used to separate water isotopes
Porous materials with temperature controlled gateways can split heavy water from water by relying on differential diffusion effect
- News
Under pressure? Room temperature superconductivity paper retracted over data analysis
Questions over treatment of data led Nature to remove the paper over the authors’ objections
- Research
Technique can characterise actinides with just a microgram of a heavy element
Use of polyoxometalates offers chance to conduct in-depth research on heavy actinides chemistry
- Careers
The chemists leaving their country over personal ethics
Family matters and political views are leading researchers to pursue careers abroad
- Research
New technique reveals interactions inside indium nucleus
Study will help researchers understand how seemingly simple single-particle phenomena emerge from complex interactions among protons and neutrons
- Feature
A material future for fusion?
Nuclear fusion has been a dream for decades. Kit Chapman finds out about the latest developments that could help it fulfil its promise
- Opinion
Masataka Ogawa and the search for nipponium
Could a Japanese scientist, whose claim to have discovered an element was dismissed, been right all along? Kit Chapman investigates
- Opinion
William Knox, the only Black supervisor in the Manhattan Project
The story of the Knox family is one of education overcoming adversity, finds Kit Chapman
- Feature
The toxic tide of ship breaking
Kit Chapman explores the chemical cost of the most dangerous industry in the world
- Careers
The conference conundrum
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, is it time to rethink events for good?
- Research
Shortest-lived and lightest magnesium isotope ever too unstable to even attract electrons
Magnesium-18 cation has a fleeting half-life of 3 billion trillionths of a second