First firm evidence for liquid water on Mars
By Katrina Krämer Not quite life on Mars, but there are lakes beneath the red planet’s glaciers Source: © ESA, INAF. Graphic rendering by Davide Coero Borga – Media INAF Artistic impression of the Mars Express spacecraft probing the southern hemisphere of Mars. Aradar cross section of the southern polar layered deposits is shown as […]
150 years of helium
By James Mitchell Crow Humanity took a long time to notice the second most common chemical element in the universe, James Mitchell Crow notes. Today we would struggle to do without it The voyage that French astronomer Pierre Janssen undertook from Europe to the eastern Indian province of Madras during the spring of 1868 was […]
Cannabidiol
[:pb] The story of Charlotte Figi, Dravet syndrome and the cannabis compound controlling her condition By Ben Valsler Charlotte Figi was just a few months old when she had her first seizure. It was an early symptom of what would eventually be diagnosed as Dravet syndrome or severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy – a rare […]
AI robot tests, predicts and even discovers reactions that are new to chemistry
By James Urquhart Researchers have designed, built and programmed a chemical-handling robot that can screen and predict chemical reactivity using machine learning. Based on the autonomous system’s predictions, the team found four novel reactions, demonstrating its potential to discover reactions quickly. Countless chemical reactions are known and many different pathways can lead to a desired […]
Water splitting demonstrated in microgravity
By Tim Wogan Drop tower experiments show how future oxygen-generating systems could work in space Light-driven water splitting reactions have been carried out in near-zero gravity by researchers investigating potential new ways to generate oxygen and fuel during long-range space missions. Their work suggests that careful catalyst design could offer possible solutions to the problems […]
The chemist’s best friend
By Tabitha Watson Where would we be without our glassware? Tabitha Watson looks through the history and current state of chemistry’s favourite amorphous solid Chemistry has a heart of glass. Think of chemistry and images of sleek laboratories filled with glittering glassware come to mind; ask a chemist what they couldn’t survive without, and the […]
Life – but not as we know it
By Nina Notman A series of missions to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn has revealed their potential to harbour life. Nina Notman looks to the skies After a series of mission failures, July 1965 saw the first successful flybys of Mars. The US Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to take close up pictures […]
Solid electrolyte boosts liquid metal battery
By Anthony King Combining molten metal electrodes with a solid electrolyte may offer a cheap, scalable alternative to Li-ion batteries A new liquid metal electrode (LME) battery made with a solid electrolyte and molten electrodes has been developed by researchers working on rechargeable batteries. Source: © 2018 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature The […]
The people in our care
By Marc Reid Management and leadership are two different, equally important, things What makes a good boss? It’s an important question. And, hidden among the hailstorm of stressors in research, one that is often neglected. Some years ago, a conversation gave me pause to consider leadership more deeply than I ever had before. Walking the […]
Piperine
By Jamie Durrani Hans Christian Ørsted The Danish natural philosopher Hans Christian Ørsted left an impressive scientific legacy. In 1820, he observed that the needle of a compass would turn when in the vicinity of a wire carrying an electric current – his work for the first time described the link between electricity and magnetism. […]
The three muses of scientific discovery
By Derek Lowe Inspiration, experimentation and happy accidents are all pathways to a breakthrough How much of a great new idea is supposed to come from sheer inspiration? The related questions are how much should be coming from brute-force experimentation (these days generally machine-aided) and how much from sheer accident and coincidence? Those are, I […]
Tool to navigate chemical space aims to be ‘Google Maps of drugs
The new online tool ChemMaps could help students and medicinal chemists explore chemical space in the search for new drugs. The site, which the developers dub ‘the Google Maps of drugs’, allows users to navigate a chemical universe of over 8000 drugs and 47,000 environmental problematic compounds in 3D. It enables users to search for a chemical […]
