All articles by James Urquhart
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Research
Water-splitting reaction reversal could extract lithium more sustainably and cheaply
Environmentally-friendly electrochemistry could cut extraction costs by 40%
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AI trained on photos of salt ‘stains’ can predict their chemical composition
Imaging could become a simple way to identify inorganic salt crystals on other planets
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Glassy gel superpolymer is sticky and can self-heal but is also hard yet stretchy
New class of polymer owes its properties to ionic liquid solvent
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Recycled construction waste could cut cement and steel’s carbon footprint
Cement can be regenerated during steel recycling in an electric arc furnace
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Genetic engineering feat coaxes yeast to produce valuable vaccine compound
Yeast could head off supply fears for vaccines ingredient by replacing soapbark tree as source of adjuvant
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Playing with plastic toy building bricks creates microplastic and nanoplastic pollution
Effects of such microscopic plastic particle on health is unknown but scientists urge caution – and more research
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AI predicts vape flavours can break down into potentially harmful compounds when heated
Flavours may decompose into harmful carbonyls, alkenes and aromatics when heated
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Research
Light-driven enzyme engineered and repurposed to catalyse unnatural reaction
Directed evolution used to create photoenzyme that can perform new-to-nature radical cyclisation
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Cross-coupling technique cracks open alcohols for chemical synthesis
A new alcohol–alcohol cross coupling reaction could become a powerful new tool for synthetic chemists
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Canadian oil tar sands operations emit far more pollution than reported
Analysis of all types of organic pollution reveals emissions underreported by as much as 6300%
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Photochemistry converts dry-cleaning solvent waste into useful chemicals
One-pot reaction offers way to upcycle industrial solvent waste
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Biocatalysis breakthrough enables synthesis of lactam building blocks for drugs
Enzymatic cyclisation of oxazolone reagents offers a cheap and simple route to important antibiotic precursor
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Research
DNA-damaging device could make mutant discovery safer and simpler
Cool microplasma jets create a stream of radicals that induce mutations
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Assembly theory puts chemistry centre stage to explain molecular complexity and life’s origins
Concept that attempts to join physics and biology via chemistry met with interest but also harsh criticism
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Cryo-EM scaffold supports imaging of small proteins previously tricky to study
Improved understanding of the structure of small proteins could aid drug designers
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Strings that draw-up brine could help supply the world with lithium
Concept takes lithium extraction into the third dimension away from cumbersome, slow pools of brine
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Unexpected reactivity of silica places question mark over safety of food additives
Discovery that silica particles – thought to be inert – can oxidise thiols requires further investigation
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Research
Protein folding stability set to be unravelled on a massive scale
Technique can analyse a million protein sequences at a time to provide data for machine learning models
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Article
Light-activated molecular motor drives drug delivery
Drug-delivery system is a ‘step towards using molecular motors in the clinic’
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Research
Molecular fossils solve evolutionary mystery
Fossilised protosteroids confirm Nobel-prizewinner’s decades-old prediction