Main Chemical Feed

Wolves seen hunting European bison in rare camera-trap recording

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:39:59 +0000

Europe’s largest land animal, the bison, is thought to be relatively unthreatened by predators, but footage from Białowieża Primaeval Forest in Poland shows it does face attacks from wolves

Millions of fossil whale bones found in deep-ocean ‘necropolis’

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:00:37 +0000

Researchers diving 7 kilometres deep in a crewed submersible have discovered a vast collection of whale bones, including fossils up to 5 million years old and species new to science

Hundreds of new moons are revealing our solar system's violent history

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:00:31 +0000

The outer solar system once seemed like a quiet backwater. But a glut of tiny, strange moons with unruly orbits are coming into view, revealing hints of a surprising past – and the origin of Saturn's rings

Click chemistry marks 25 years & covalent bonding in the actinides

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 15:40:00 +0000

Click chemistry: it’s in the name. How has this unique discipline made its mark over the last quarter decade? And, we discuss the first experimental evidence of how covalent bonding works in the actinides.

Outgoing US National Academy of Sciences head warns of ‘turmoil’ in her final State of Science address

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 14:56:00 +0000

NAS president addresses research funding worries, the need to revamp the promotion and tenure system and how AI can help

A nuclear war between India and Pakistan could destroy the ozone layer

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 14:28:35 +0000

Climate models suggest a small nuclear war in the tropics would do even more damage to the ozone layer than a larger nuclear war in more northerly latitudes, increasing exposure to dangerous ultraviolet radiation all over the world

Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:00:23 +0000

A senior figure in the Ukrainian defence industry told New Scientist that a test took place two years ago involving fully autonomous drones set to destroy anything in a given area, with confirmed casualties

‘Weird and capricious’: Experts struggle to understand new list of political jobs at science agencies

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:10:00 +0000

NIH programs and leadership are hit especially hard, while other science agencies are barely mentioned

Immense whale ‘graveyard’ discovered in the deep sea

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Stretching 1200 kilometers, the unusual collection of carcasses includes fossils older than 5 million years

A Waymo nearly hit me, but I'm still optimistic about driverless cars

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 10:37:43 +0000

A near miss with a Waymo while cycling through London hasn't changed my optimistic stance on driverless cars, but we can't ever let our guard down, says Matthew Sparkes

Surprising oxidising power of carbon dioxide freed by photochemistry

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 10:20:00 +0000

Iron-based photocatalyst enabled a range of useful organic molecules to be synthesised from alkenes

This scientist is rethinking how to put GPS collars on wildlife

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Richard Bischof’s devices aim to make telemetry research cheaper, higher quality, and more humane

How far will EU push for fairer trade with China?

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:46:00 +0000

Strengthening rules on pharmaceutical and chemical trade could protect critical industries

Robots are about to overtake armed soldiers as the deciders of war

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 06:00:55 +0000

Uncrewed ground vehicles have already been tested for defending the front line by the Ukrainian military. Despite their limitations, these remotely controlled robots could be the deciding factor in many conflicts

Will the World Cup kick off disease outbreaks?

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 03:45:00 +0000

Don’t expect pathogens to steal the show, says research group that studied the risk of visiting fans spreading infections

First results put neutrino experiment in China on track for breakthrough

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 01:20:00 +0000

JUNO could beat much bigger and more expensive rivals to order neutrinos by mass

Iron Age Britons may have removed the brains of the dead

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:01:51 +0000

Scrape marks inside a skull and sharpened limb bones in a set of remains found in Scotland may be evidence of unusual Iron Age funerary rituals

Frozen squirrel scat preserves ancient DNA from hundreds of species

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:00:33 +0000

A complex ecosystem of woolly mammoths, bison, horses and big cats has been elucidated by studying the faeces of small rodents that probably ate the bigger animals

The last-ditch plan to save coral reefs from utter destruction

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:00:22 +0000

Bleaching has devastated reefs around the world, raising fears of an irreversible shift. Yet new interventions have revealed that corals can be remarkably resilient if we can give them enough help to recover

Ukraine war sanctions straining Russia’s chemistry sector

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:41:00 +0000

Domestic producers are adapting to fill gaps in supply chains

Dinosaur-killing asteroid impact site stayed hot for millions of years

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 10:01:59 +0000

Drill cores at the impact site of the Chicxulub asteroid show evidence that, alongside widespread destruction, the collision created a vast underground ecosystem filled with hot water that sheltered microbial life

The 2027 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 2 research/teaching positions

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000

The 2027 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List has 2 research/teaching positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On June 10, 2025, the 2026 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 4 research/teaching positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? This will serve as the first open thread post.

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread.

Are you having problems accessing the Google Sheet because of a Google Documents error? Email me at chemjobber@gmail.com and I will send you an Excel download of the latest sheet.

A cosmic case of mistaken identity that can only be solved right now

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:00:32 +0000

Brown dwarfs are somewhere between the size of a planet and a star, so how could we have potentially mistaken two of them for distant galaxies? Columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein argues that solving this cosmic mix-up is particularly possible now, as galaxy research has never been stronger

Extreme weather likely to increase methane emissions from landfills

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:30:00 +0000

Observations and models reveal precipitation and temperature linked to 13% of emissions from these sites

Why we should all take quantum physics extremely personally

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:00:45 +0000

Physics is considered a cold, hard science – but it will transform your life if you view it with a bit more subjectivity, says Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

How can you tell whether your dog is right-pawed or left-pawed?

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 07:01:00 +0000

Science chats with researchers about a new method of assessing canine “handedness” and what it reveals about your pup’s health and personality

‘Working without them is painful’: WHO’s Ebola chief reflects on U.S. colleagues’ absence

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 04:25:00 +0000

Chikwe Ihekweazu, on the ground in Congo, discusses challenges of bringing the outbreak under control

Misconduct sleuth in China swiftly gains acclaim for calling out questionable papers

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 03:27:00 +0000

Independent vlogger Geng Hongwei galvanizes often-sluggish institutions to investigate and punish prominent scientists

Canadian biologists decry plans to bypass environmental reviews for infrastructure projects

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 02:05:00 +0000

Government proposal to speed up development could harm protected plants and animals, scientists say

NSF imposes stricter conflict-of-interest rules for grant-review panels

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 01:25:00 +0000

Researchers say changes could further burden the understaffed agency

You don't need to worry about recursive-self-improving AI – yet

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:14:51 +0000

Anthropic has warned that recursive-self-improving AI could be on the horizon, but the truth is the company is more immediately concerned with marketing itself for a blockbuster initial public offering on the stock market, says Matthew Sparkes

What really happened when ancient humans migrated out of Africa

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:00:38 +0000

The out-of-Africa migration, in which ancient humans went on to inhabit every other continent except Antarctica, may not have been one moment in time, but a long and slow process. Columnist Michael Marshall examines how archaeologists are rethinking this critical part of our history

What is a ‘normal’ memory slowdown, and when should I worry?

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:00:35 +0000

Lapses in memory are a normal part of ageing but can also be signs of dementia. Here’s how to distinguish between typical brain ageing and cognitive decline

Wildlife thrives in solar farm built on restored peatland

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:00:11 +0000

A diverse range of bird species has been recorded at a solar park on rewetted peatland in Germany, suggesting that combining energy generation with habitat restoration could benefit biodiversity, the climate and the economy

Can Apple and Google stop children from sharing explicit images?

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:02:52 +0000

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned tech firms, including Apple and Google, that they must voluntarily implement tools to stop children sharing explicit images, but experts warn this is easier said than done

Half the world's reservoirs could be clogged up with dirt by 2060

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 15:05:57 +0000

Each decade the world is losing over 7 per cent of its freshwater storage capacity to sediment build-up, according to an analysis of over half a million reservoirs

Understanding anorexia’s grip on the brain could unlock new therapies

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 14:00:41 +0000

One-third of people with anorexia nervosa don’t recover and treatment has remained stagnant for years. Now we’re beginning to understand how the condition takes over the mind

What kind of damage has RFK Jr’s health department inflicted on vaccine research in the US so far?

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:46:00 +0000

Since becoming health secretary in early 2025, Robert F Kennedy Jr has confirmed the worst fears of his critics

Unpicking endometriosis reveals how it affects more than the pelvis

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:00:22 +0000

Endometriosis is usually thought of as a gynaecological condition, but a huge study shows it has links with cholesterol levels, inflammation and an altered microbiome

You could get some of the benefits of sleep without having to nod off

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 11:38:02 +0000

Mice seemed to reap some of the benefits of sleep by having their brain activity stimulated while they were awake, and the researchers plan to test the approach on people

Warming seas impact cell structures that deliver oxygen to coral

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:34:00 +0000

Oxygen-sensitive nanoparticles reveal a new mechanism of coral stress

Are we getting to the point where it's safe to gene-edit babies?

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 20:11:08 +0000

A team in the US has reported promising results after using an improved form of CRISPR to gene-edit human embryos, but a major issue remains unsolved

Cuts to US ocean programme will hinder monitoring of El Niño and AMOC

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:16:15 +0000

Scientists warn that the Trump Administration's push to dismantle a vital network of ocean sensing instruments will stymie crucial weather and climate monitoring in the Pacific and Atlantic

Flood of AI 'garbage' is pushing open-source developers to the limit

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:21:45 +0000

The modern world depends on open-source software maintained by volunteers, but the added demands of checking and fixing AI-written submissions are causing some to burn out and quit

A chromosome from a frozen rat has been resurrected inside mice

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 14:52:40 +0000

Mice that contain cells with an added rat chromosome have been created by scientists. The next step is to try this with frozen elephant tissue – and if that works, the team will try it with frozen mammoths

Have a great weekend

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000

So this is kind of a big weekend for our family, but (hopefully) I will be glad to be home to participate. Hope that you all have had a great week, and we'll see you on Monday.

Could AI research assistants speed up scientific discovery?

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:25:00 +0000

Google’s Co-Scientist and Futurehouse’s Robin can help scientists generate hypotheses, design experiments and analyse data

The maths meme that has been distracting mathematicians for a century

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:00:46 +0000

A seemingly simple set of rules kicks off a kind of mathematical magic trick, which has kept great minds busy since the 1930s. Columnist Jacob Aron explores the origins of the Collatz conjecture, why it is so addictive to mathematicians and whether AI could help us solve it once and for all

What do university chemistry practicals really test?

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 08:30:00 +0000

In Nitheeshan Guanantham’s experience, stamina can become a stand-in for skill

Becoming a parent may make you love your partner less

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:00:21 +0000

Parents report loving their partners less within the first year of having a child, but that doesn't mean the feeling is permanent or inevitable