All articles by Andy Extance
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ResearchProteins with multiple structures open up AlphaFold’s black box
AI prediction model often fails to identify fold-switching, helping show how it works and the limits of its usefulness
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FeatureHow satellite remote sensing is enhancing our understanding of Earth
Instruments in space have studied the planet’s atmosphere and surface, and are now being joined by powerful new ones, finds Andy Extance
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BusinessMDMA rejection poses questions for psychedelic drug trials
Decision prompts reflection over how psychotherapy is involved, regulating combination treatments and safeguarding patients
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ResearchAI tool outperforms existing x-ray structure methods
Deep learning approach determines phase of diffracted beams with lower-quality data
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ResearchThe catalyst speedup toolkit
A rundown of the various strategies scientists are exploring to cheat the Sabatier limit
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FeatureHow a new strategy aims to break the catalytic speed limit
The Sabatier principle normally defines the maximum reaction rate enabled by catalyst materials, but scientists now think that they can go even faster, explains Andy Extance
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NewsHow can your lab cut water use in reflux reactions?
Practical advice builds on a new study comparing air-cooled condensers
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FeatureBrain chemistry basics
Andy Extance looks into the latest in Alzheimer’s disease, pain and memory
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FeatureWhy don’t we know how antidepressants work yet?
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are at the centre of a collision between social and biochemical outlooks on depression, finds Andy Extance
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ResearchElectronic cooling device is part fridge, part muscle
Soft polymer material flexes to move heat between surfaces
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ResearchScreening reveals thousands of ‘undrugged, yet druggable’ proteins
Collaboration involving Pfizer develops freely accessible AI tool to probe protein–compound interactions
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ResearchFirst mirror-image cyclodextrins come together ‘like Lego’
L-enantiomers could be more stable than their existing, more common, forms
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ResearchCarbon’s allotrope explosion demonstrates how the element is both versatile and fickle
New all carbon materials are relatively easy to predict but challenging, if not impossible to make, experts tell Andy Extance
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ResearchPulsating chemical computers vie with their quantum rivals
The Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction powers cellular automata and optimisation calculations
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ResearchKinky findings drive crystal growth paradigm shift claim
How molecules attach chemically at surfaces can be more important than how strongly solvents bind them in determining growth rate
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ResearchFirst GPT-4-powered AI lab assistant independently directs key organic reactions
Large language model takes control after being prompted to do Suzuki and Sonogashira couplings
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FeatureReaching into the non-covalent toolbox
Alongside supramolecular stalwarts, budding bonding forms are vying to be valuable, finds Andy Extance
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FeatureUsing DNA evidence to picture suspects
Forensic DNA phenotyping predicts people’s appearance and reveals their ancestry, finds Andy Extance, but has some significant challenges to overcome
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BusinessPositive trial sets stage for therapeutic use of MDMA in US
Hallucinogen-assisted psychiatric treatment heads to regulators, amid cost and other concerns
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FeatureThe drug developers fighting the antibiotic resistance problem
Andy Extance talks to the researchers innovating across different drug classes in the hunt to develop new treatments