Highlights
New Scientist: We need more radioactive drugs. Can we make them from nuclear waste?
22 April 2026The rise of a new generation of radiotherapies means we will soon need much greater quantities of radioactive atoms. That’s why companies are scrambling to refine them from all manner of radioactive waste.
Science: Whistleblower alleges Finnish startup’s vaunted solid-state battery isn’t what it claims
22 April 2026Donut Lab’s assertions of lightning-fast charging and high energy storage have led to a criminal complaint.
Nature: Fresh claim of making elusive ‘hexagonal’ diamond is the strongest yet
04 March 2026After decades of debate, researchers say that they have found the clearest evidence yet for this rare form of carbon.
C&EN: Copper finally joins the metallocene club
17 February 2026More than 70 years after ferrocene’s discovery, cuprocene fills a long-standing gap in the sandwich menu.
C&EN: Lighting a better path for biobased furans
16 January 2026Photocatalytic hydrolysis offers a shortcut for renewable chemicals.
TESTIMONIALS
“As an editor and reporter, Mark Peplow is fast, accurate, and versatile. He covers science policy and pure research with equal passion, and his writing combines a scientist’s precision with a journalist’s verve.” Tim Appenzeller
Former Chief Magazine Editor at Nature, now News Editor at Science
"Mark guided me through some of the most challenging stories I've written. These are pieces I might not have attempted were it not for his steady editorial hand." Linda Nordling
Freelance Journalist, South Africa
“Working with Mark is never anything other than a pleasure. He is the kind of editor that writers hope for: able to identify what needs fixing and what doesn’t, bringing to bear a wealth of knowledge, always clear, prompt and easy to talk with. Much of that comes from being a splendid writer himself.”
Philip Ball
Freelance Science Writer
Author Archives: Mark Peplow
Chemical & Engineering News: Stale beer? There’s an app for that
Brewers could use a smartphone to read a simple colorimetric test for beer freshness.
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Spectrum: My Subterranean Tour of London’s Crossrail
It’s a damp, freezing cold day in January, and I’m at the bottom of a massive hole in the ground …
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Spectrum: The Digital Underground
London’s Crossrail Is a $21 Billion Test of Virtual Modeling.
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Crusading editor aims to shake things up in science
A profile of the BMJ’s editor, Fiona Godlee, for STAT magazine.
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Malaria drug meets market resistance
Exclusive news article for Nature about artemisinin.
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The hole story
Nature article about Swiss-cheese-like materials called metal–organic frameworks.
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Nature: Liquid metal ‘balloons’ offer room-temperature soldering
Invention could help the microelectronics industry to connect circuit-board components without risking heat damage.
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Chemical & Engineering News: Tiny enzyme tweak expands substrate palette
Changing just two amino acids transforms a picky aldolase into a cosmopolitan catalyst.
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Nature: Synthetic malaria drug meets market resistance
First commercial deployment of synthetic biology for medicine has modest impact.
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ACS Central Science: A Conversation with Christina Smolke
The synthetic biology pioneer discusses how she reprogrammed yeast to produce opioids.
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