RSC - Advancing the Chemical Sciences


Chemistry World

 

News January 2004


Saving the Emperor's Blushes

The terracotta army from the mausoleum of the first Chinese Emperor.


Bubble, Bubble Toil and Trouble

The performance of biosensors can be adversely affected by the formation of small bubbles during their construction.



Swift moves close down chemistry at Queen Mary's

After more than 100 years, the doors at Queen Mary University of London have closed to student chemists in a swift move that has angered the staff of its chemistry department.


Rioja's isomers give Spanish oak the nose

Wine connoisseurs may turn up their noses in disgust.


Dreamy spires spin out lab lessons in hard-nosed economics

As his researchers move into a dream lab at Oxford.


Industry off hook over mercury in fish

Research blames Nature for contamination. Maria Burke reports.


Crisp reaction browns off food chemists

Chemists dispute technique for assessing acrylamides.


Terrorists target chemical industry, says warfare expert

Chemicals used by police forces around the world 'violate the basic norm' of the chemical weapons treaty.


Meet the industry chief who could have been a head teacher

Alistair Steel, the new president of the UK's Chemical Industries Association (CIA).


Gelatine fingerprints mark trail of cheats

After BSE, laser spectrometry looks set to ease policing of contaminated feed.


Model theory unites enzyme actions

At last, computers are beginning to unravel the origins of enzyme catalysis.


Ruthernium turns allylic alcohols into saturated aldehydes or ketones

Organic catalyst breaks alcohol record

Spanish chemists reveal their 'most efficient' catalyst for crucial transformation.


Spiralling nanotubes, with a uniform twist, form a hoop

Identical nanotubes yield production clues

Nanotechnologists edge towards their Holy Grail of controlled fabrication.


A tiny matter of molecular screening

Nano reaction vessels could cut down solvent use and seek out new drugs.


Amino acid smuggles biocide into parasite

Nature lends a helping hand in the fight against parasitic diseases.


Spinning into a new era of computing

Flipping a spin is easier and faster than moving around electrons. So are we going to switch to spintronics? Michael Gross investigates.


nanovehicles, custom-built to enter

Biomaterialists promise 'nanovehicles' to deliver drugs

Custom-built carbon nanotubes can enter human cells as harmless drug-delivery vehicles, speculates a Franco-Italian team of biologists and materials chemists.


Antimony compounds

New route to antimony compounds

Efficient and simple synthesis of distibenes, the antimony compounds regarded as notoriously difficult and hazardous to make.


Solid evidence of green union

Light so excites crystals of cinnamic acid that they can unite rapidly and undamaged without the need for potentially harmful solvents.


Pores for thought with rigid, contorted polymer

Pores for thought with rigid, contorted polymer

In an exciting communication heralding the discovery of a useful new class of materials, chemists at the University of Manchester introduce 'polymers of intrinsic microporosity'.


Sensitive electrode detects arsenic

Diamond electrodes laced with boron and coated with iridium oxide could provide a cheap and simple way of detecting arsenic at exceptionally low concentrations.


Catalysts for re-use

Simple chemistry can make catalysts recoverable and reusable without affecting their performance, claim two polymer chemists at Texas A&M University.


chemically identical molecules distort to lower energy levels

Moves to molecular switch

A study of how the crystalline environment of a molecule can influence its behaviour over a range of temperatures brings the development of molecular switches a step closer.


Lab fungus to fight cancer

Successful synthesis of a fungal metabolite known to disrupt cancer cells could lead to a wide range of new drugs to fight the disease.


Press (hard) for your new plastic toy

US researchers develop plastics that can be reshaped at low temperatures.


Lanthanoids set shining example to German chemists

In a piece of reverse science, German researchers have made nanocrystals luminesce more strongly by enclosing them in a crystalline shell.