Liquid water could have carved Mars’ famous gullies
CO2 sublimation could have raised atmospheric pressure enough for liquid water to form
Ice crystallisation initiated by ultrafast laser pulses caught on camera
Technique will aid understanding of early stages of water freezing
AI can suggest Covid-19 antivirals from protein sequence alone
IBM model can also find molecules that bind at different sites on target proteins
Lateral flow HPV test could increase detection rates in resource-poor settings
Low-cost assay works uses self-collected samples and gives results within 45 minutes
Biocatalytic process shows promise for large-scale medicinal oligonucleotide production
Promising nucleic acid therapies could be made more cheaply, greenly and simply
Plastic waste and CO2 converted into hydrogen and feedstock chemical using sunlight
PET acts as electron donor for photocatalytic process that produce syngas and chemical feedstock
Photophysical oxidation plays newly discovered role in atmospheric chemistry
Process is likely to be a general mechanism in tropospheric chemistry, especially at low altitudes
Small ring insertion expands structural editing toolbox
Bicyclic ring system made by adding a bicyclobutane into a thiophene
Frustrated radical pairs cleave unactivated C–H bonds
New technique targets previously inaccessible bonds for selective C–H activation
Silicon and perovskite work perfectly in tandem to produce 30%+ efficient solar cells
Combination of materials allows higher energy photons to be captured to beat silicon’s limit
MOFs + rotaxanes = MOFaxanes
Threading polymer chains through MOF microcrystals leads to a new class of interlocked system
Introducing click chemistry’s newest reaction
Phosphorus fluoride exchange allows chemists to quickly build P–O and P–N linked compounds
Burning plastic waste for energy at odds with carbon neutrality
Forecast says carbon dioxide emissions from plastic waste-to-energy conversion will exceed those from fossil fuels by middle of the century
Half-century quest to create stable beryllium–beryllium bond ends in success
Organoberyllium sandwich compound should provide answers to questions first posed a century ago
Ingredient for life detected in icy plume from Saturn’s moon Enceladus
First discovery of phosphorus in an ocean beyond Earth reveals that the bio-essential element may be abundant on the moon
High-entropy alloy nanoparticles made with 17 different metals
Liquid gallium matrix enables mixing of elements that were otherwise immiscible
Hand-built caesium-based ‘artificial atoms’ used to create ‘synthetic’ benzene
Manufactured atoms offer chemists chance to play ‘mind games’ with matter and change bond order of molecules
Molecular fossils solve evolutionary mystery
Fossilised protosteroids confirm Nobel-prizewinner’s decades-old prediction
Atomic force microscopy probes mechanochemical kinetics
Exerting force in one direction increases Diels–Alder reactants’ sensitivity to pressure 1000 times
Life might be able to prosper in sulfuric acid clouds of Venus
Nucleic acid bases found to be stable in conditions found in the planet’s atmosphere
First synthesis of unusual arsenic reagent reveals that it breaks periodic trend
Electron deficient arsenic intermediate challenges preconceptions of heavy main group elements
Lithium dendrite understanding will help unpick durability issues of solid-state batteries
Fractures found to occur in two stages, with cracks initially occurring at pores
Digestion of artificial sweetener sucralose appears to create metabolite that damages DNA
A compound formed when Splenda is consumed – and is even found in off-the-shelf sucralose – is suspected to be genotoxic
Click chemistry with sound-induced mechanocatalysis
Researcher behind work says they ‘could be very close to a perfect way to conduct green chemistry’
Gene therapy jab offers cheap and safe way to sterilise stray cats
Treatment could help to tackle populations of feral cats that threaten wildlife
Aromatic molecules in a galaxy far, far away
JWST IR observations suggest star formation was rapid and uneven in early galaxy
Mechanochemistry makes gold salts that are soluble in organic solvents
No need for aqua regia, chlorine or mercury in this gold processing method
Formation of chiral centres monitored in real time
Michael addition observed at single-molecule level