RSC - Advancing the Chemical Sciences


Chemistry World

 

March 2008

Vol 5, No 3

March 2008

News and analysis

Could Afghanistan's opium crop be legalised?

08 February 2008

Bumper opium harvest fires debate over licensed production Also available in Mandarin

Bush budget proposal backs physical sciences

05 February 2008

After cuts in 2008, plans to double budget revived

EPSRC forced to cut science

25 January 2008

Bumper grants to cover infrastructure costs means fewer projects

Industry reports a year of mixed fortune

15 February 2008

Solid growth for chemicals sector contrasts with pharmaceutical woes Also available in Mandarin

Illinois lawmakers round on DOE over FutureGen

06 February 2008

Political row erupts after DOE decides to pull out of flagship clean coal plant

Threat to future of European synchrotron

29 January 2008

Doubt over German and UK funding for the upgrade of ESRF

Doubts over US and EU nanosafety drives

Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have recently stepped up efforts to monitor the potential impacts of nanotechnology on the environment and public health

2008 Wolf prize winners revealed

23 January 2008

Pioneers of single molecule spectroscopy jointly recognised by award

NIH battles publishers over open access

22 January 2008

Agency pushes ahead as publishers warn mandatory policy will disrupt peer review

Testing time for Canadian science advisers

14 February 2008

Chemist Howard Alpert on what lies ahead for Canada's new science council

The trouble with antibiotics

Eighty years ago a mouldy Petri dish changed the face of medicine, and Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin spurred a golden age of antibiotic research

Calming heat-stressed crops

30 January 2008

A spray to protect crop yields in drought- and heat-stressed plants may be available in two years

Avandia not to blame for patient deaths, study finds

A large-scale clinical study of diabetes treatments has found no evidence to link GlaxoSmithKline's type 2 diabetes drug Avandia

Business roundup

Industry news

In the papers...

Short items

News in brief

Short items

Market Place

New products, March 2008

Note book

Short items


Chemical science

Nanofibre tape is sticky stuff

18 February 2008

Surgeons and climbers could benefit from new materials inspired by gecko's feet

Green chemistry aids bone repair

04 February 2008

Biodegradable scaffold made with supercritical solvents mends broken bones in mice

Machines get a taste for espresso

11 February 2008

Nestlé researchers have developed a robot that can predict the taste of coffee within minutes

Oxidation goes green

11 February 2008

New catalysts to simplify and clean up routes to useful chemicals

Genetic code read directly from RNA

01 February 2008

Sequencing DNA could become as simple as 'reading a barcode at the supermarket'

Quinine synthesis mystery solved

05 February 2008

US chemists have reproduced a 90-year old experiment to settle a 50-year old controversy

Artificial cells mimic ion transport

07 February 2008

An inorganic capsule that could be used to study cell functions has been developed by a team of German and US scientists

Triple action catalysts

04 February 2008

Trifunctional organocatalysts that closely mimic natural enzymes can significantly increase reaction rates, say chemists in Japan

Trio of papers cast doubts on osteoporosis treatment

24 January 2008

Studies question calcium supplements and drug benefits

3D television a step closer to reality

07 February 2008

Unique polymer used to make updatable holographic display

DNA cages change size on demand

04 February 2008

Dynamic structures could be drug-delivery vessels

Water-based metathesis

06 February 2008

Polish chemists have demonstrated the unprecedented catalytic efficiency of olefin metathesis reactions in a water solution.

Laser beam hits tiny target

30 January 2008

Chemists looking to analyse single cells have combined lab-on-a-chip techniques with lasers to burst the cells open.

Clothes power up thanks to nanowires

13 February 2008

Nanowire-coated thread could be spun into clothes capable of powering a mobile phone or iPod

Crystal shows colossal expansion

07 February 2008

Silver hexacyanocobaltate gets shorter and fatter than any other material on heating

DNA detection with a twist

08 February 2008

US scientists have set DNA detection in a spin by exploiting one of nature's molecular motors.

Interview: Model behaviour

12 February 2008

Stephen Klippenstein tells Hilary Crichton how theoretical chemistry can help solve global warming

Better detection of DNA synthesis

06 February 2008

US researchers use click chemistry to measure cell proliferation

Catalysis probed with MRI

25 January 2008

A new technique can see gas reactions as they happen inside microreactors

DNA helps nanoparticles crystallise

30 January 2008

Two new techniques use DNA to build crystals of nanoparticles more easily

Turning gas into fuel cheaply

23 January 2008

Fuel cell converts methane to methanol at lower temperature and pressure

Instant insight: Sensing NO in single cells

21 February 2008

Xiaoying Ye, Stanislav Rubakhin and Jonathan Sweedler describe fluorescent separation and electrochemical methods for detecting a crucial, but tiny, biomolecule


Chinese news supplement

China to establish environment ministry this year

12 February 2008

More powers to curb worsening pollution Also available in Mandarin

BP to help CAS commercialise clean energy technologies

Commercialise clean technologies for China's local needs Also available in Mandarin

Tougher standards for Chinese pesticide makers

13 February 2008

Industry labs face closer scrutiny in a move that could drive smaller producers out of business

Profile: Vaccine trailblazer

07 February 2008

Yin Weidong, Sinovac Biotech's general manager, talks about a Chinese biotech success story Also available in Mandarin

Modified nanotubes catalyse fuel cell

Platinum nanoparticles boost methanol oxidation

Esters made easy with indium

21 February 2008

New indium-based catalyst makes useful chiral chemicals

China News in brief

Short items


Features

Green couture

Synthetic fibres are back in fashion after an ecological makeover.

Complexity crystallised

Protein x-ray crystallography has come a long way from a 12 year search for the structure of a single protein. Philip Ball reports

The concrete conundrum

Concrete is the single most widely used material in the world - and it has a carbon footprint to match.

The house that BASF built

Chemistry is the secret ingredient behind an energy-efficient house that has been built in Nottingham, UK

Political chemists

Simon Hadlington meets some of the chemists who are bringing their scientific knowledge into the political realm

Chemist in the cabinet

John Denham gave up life in the lab for a career in politics, and now runs the British government's department for science. Richard Van Noorden meets him


Opinion

Editorial: Sweating the small stuff

In the field of nanotechnology, the devil is in the detail.

Small is beautiful

The launch of the Enterprise Europe Network should help small and medium enterprises to boost innovation throughout Europe says Janez Potocnik

Column: In the pipeline

Derek Lowe wonders how to revive some lost techniques

Column: The crucible

Art inspired by science should be more than just a pretty picture, says Philip Ball

Column: Bench Monkey

Dylan Stiles is writing up


Regulars

Letters

Chemistry World Letters, March 2008



Reviews

Chemistry World Reviews, March 2008



Puzzles

Puzzles, March 2008

Chemistry through the lens

The popular Chemistry through the lens feature is now available to view online.

Classic Kit: Mohr's burette

Titrations are the symbol of all that is boring in science

Careers: The gardener's chemist

Organic chemist Steve Wailes uses novel reactions in the fight against crop weeds. Susan Aldridge finds out more

Careers: Plugging the gap

Can the UK's Sector skills council for science, engineering and manufacturing (Semta) solve the pharmaceutical industry's recruitment crisis?

The last retort: Conscious chemicals

How can an atomic system (like you or me) be conscious?

Flashback

40 years ago in Chemistry in Britain