Chemistry World Blog

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15 March 2010: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

This week’s stories:

Nanoparticles successfully deliver RNA interference in cancer patients
Nanoparticles injected into the blood of cancer patients successfully reached their target and silence genes

Drinking water from sunlight and seawater
Technique that can ‘push’ the salt out of seawater could lead to portable water desalination devices

Reach deadline at risk
Chemicals at risk of being removed from market as large number of firms look set to miss EU chemical regulation deadline

Lipid-based drug carriers target tumours
A unique way to control the size of lipid-based anticancer drug carriers could lead to more efficient anticancer therapy

New self-replication system governed by mechanical force
Shaken or stirred? Chemists discover a new self-replication system whose outcome is dictated by how mechanical force is applied to it

Universities face cuts as Hefce deals with first funding drop in years
£7.4 billion distributed for teaching and research at universities in England, but uncertainties and anxiety remain

Dual sensing spray-on wash-off paints
A water-based fluorescent paint simultaneously images pressure and temperature distribution on aeroplanes and cars

Infrared spectroscopy aids cancer diagnosis
A genetic algorithm developed by UK scientists could aid the use of infrared spectroscopy in cancer diagnosis

Ditch the paperwork, say researchers
Thousands of frustrated researchers call for EU funding processes to be simplified and cut out unnecessary paperwork

CF wins turf war for Terra
CF Industries looks to have won the turf wars after its $4.7 billion bid beats Yara out of the bidding for Terra

Chemoselectivity goes with the flow
Japanese researchers have devised a flow microreactor to control the chemoselectivity of synthetic organic reactions

Interview: Reaching for the summit
Luis Oro talks about his passions for chemistry, the environment and climbing mountains

Making ‘armoured’ T-shirts
Cotton shirts reinforced with boron carbide have potential for tough-but-flexible new body armour

Double action cancer therapy
Multifunctional nanoparticles simultaneously attack tumours with chemotherapy and photothermal therapy

An agile future
Nick Roelofs, president of Agilent’s life sciences group, discusses how the company is planning to ride the waves of the economic recovery

All aboard the DNA nanotube
Cargo-carrying DNA nanotubes that can rapidly release their load on demand have been made for the first time by Canadian researchers

Solvents switch in and out of water
Solvents that change their hydrophilicity on addition and removal of carbon dioxide could help make chemistry better for the environment

Microfibres pure enough for the liver
A research group in Korea have developed a method to engineer artificial liver tissue using microfluidics