Chemistry World Blog

29 January 2012: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

NERC asks institutes to weed out poor grants
Research council plans to improve grant success rates by getting universities to screen out ‘uncompetitive’ proposals

Whistleblowers accuse FDA of spying, persecution
US FDA employees sue agency, saying they were subjected to secret surveillance for expressing safety concerns about medical devices

Toxic mushroom behind Chinese deaths unmasked
The killer chemicals that have claimed hundreds of lives in China have been identified in a new species of fungi

Ultrafast NMR shows the way
Scientists working in Israel and Spain have used two-dimensional NMR to monitor a reaction in real time

AstraZeneca to cut 7300 more jobs
The cost cutting trend is set to continue as big pharma reels from patent expires

UK chemistry student numbers hold steady
Chemistry degrees predicted to buck the trend of a 9% drop in applications to UK universities

Magical microwaves
When a reaction speeds up in a microwave, is it down to the heat or the microwaves?

The world’s strongest fibres
A polymer fibre that combines carbon nanotubes and reduced graphene oxide is stronger than spider silk and Kevlar

Two become one for bio-oil upgrade
A zeolite-metal catalyst combination will make transport fuels from biomass a more realistic prospect

Pesticides linked to vitamin D deficiency
Banned organochlorine pesticides such as DDT could be causing chronic illnesses

Molecular dynamics to combat chemical terrorism
A computer programme to find a pathway to decontaminate VX, a toxic nerve agent that featured in the Nicolas Cage film The Rock

Iron accumulation linked to neurogenerative diseases
New discovery suggests iron chelation could treat diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

Settlement ups UK universities’ dependency on fees
Grant letter holds research funding steady while student numbers are set to drop next year

Calculations reveal carbon-carbon quadruple bond
High bonding order possible in main group and may be responsible for the ability to isolate molecular species