RSC - Advancing the Chemical Sciences


Chemistry World

 

News January 2005


Pharmaceuticals: Spotlight on drug regulators

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to tighten drug safety following allegations that two withdrawn drugs - Merck's arthritis drug Vioxx and Bayer's cholesterol reducin...


Agriculture: Latest report fails to shift Europe's GM fears

While European Union (EU) states have backed away from overturning national bans on genetically modified (GM) crops, an independent UK project report has shown that GM herbicide-to...


Forensics: The twilight world of the clandestine chemist

In a laboratory somewhere in the north of England a distinguished analytical chemist is synthesising illegal drugs using recipes and protocols downloaded from clandestine websites ...


Molecular modelling: Collaboration mints mimetics

Synthesised protein for angiogenesis control


Synthesis: All aboard the train for Africa

Flow chemistry doesn't immediately spring to mind alongside the word Africa, but the marketing team at technology company Syriss, Royston, UK, hope to change that


Education: Cuts hit chemistry

In the closing weeks of 2004, two UK universities announced their intentions to withdraw undergraduate chemistry courses


Awards: Spinout entrepreneurs on the shortlist

Shortlist announced for Chemistry World prize


Toxicology: A whiff of controversy

Air fresheners stink - or so new research would have us believe.



Turning it blue on the catwalk

The ancient art of extracting indigo from woad is being updated by biochemists


Sticky tubes? Just add water

Japanese and US researchers tackle the problems of nanotube hydrophobicity


Molecular motor turns both ways

First two-way artificial molecular motor obeys the laws of thermodynamics


Chemists probe the perils of attachment

Enzyme activity is altered when proteins are adsorbed onto carbon nanotubes


DNA damaging dots

Evidence that nanoparticles might damage DNA adds to debate


Lining up to revolutionise electronics

Dye molecules in hybrid nanomaterials are manipulated to behave like diodes


Spinning webs with microfluidics

New method mimics spiders to produce microscale fibres and tubes


Green chemistry's shining light

Using sunlight to create carbon-carbon bonds the green way


Cell jet printers

Living cells join the list of printable agents


Co-polymer

Reading polymer chains in Reading

Sequence-recognition in synthetic chemistry akin to biological systems


Organic building blocks

Improving asymmetric reactions

New breed of organocatalysts is set to improve on existing systems


Crushing resistance by destroying plasmids

Natural plasmid incompatibility could help combat antibiotic resistance


Chemists force platinum partnership

Novel compound heralds opportunities at the right hand side of the periodic table


Radioactive discharge measurement

New methods for detecting radioactive output from nuclear power stations


Liquid reaction from magnetic attraction

Moving water on the nanoscale with the help of a hand-held magnet


Microreactor

Optimising organic chemistry

The best way to do a reaction could be easier to work out thanks to a microreactor developed by a team of US and Swiss scientists.


Liquid crystals

Giving liquid crystals the brush-off

Polymer molecules in the shape of tiny brushes can help liquid crystals line up on a surface


Tossing Pebbles into cells

Scientists in the UK, have found a simple way to introduce sensors into cells without causing them stress


Supercritical problems dissolved

The possibility of using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) as a cheap and effective reaction medium may soon become a reality thanks to a team of UK scientists.


Reactor-analyser

Chips with everything

A new way to gather chemical information quickly and cheaply has been developed by UK chemists


2-alkynyl oxazoles and oxazolines

New, easy way to build drugs

A new class of a specific organic reaction looks set to provide a useful approach to making functionalised organic building blocks for natural products.


Silicate structure

Spontaneous self-building silicate structures

A new way to make silicate nanoparticles that spontaneously self-assemble.


Inorganic synthesis in the spotlight

Canadian chemists are developing a new general way to make platinum-phosphorus bonds


Nanoparticles

Stability to the core

Corrosion-resistant, stable magnetic nanomaterials have been made by German researchers


Arsenic donors gratefully received

A groundbreaking mixed donor diamido-diarsine [As2N2] macrocyclic ligand that coordinates to a series of early transition metals (ETMs) has been designed