Highlights
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.
C&EN: Gas looping boosts efficiency of carbon nanotube production
22 December 2025Methane pyrolysis reactor recycles process gases to improve output of nanotubes and hydrogen.
C&EN: Enhanced rock weathering shows little climate benefit in large trial
18 December 20253-year Swiss study underscores the importance of site selection to maximize CO2 sequestration.
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
Category Archives: Highlights
Chemistry World: Academic versus predator
Researchers must halt the rise of predatory journals by cutting off their supply of papers.
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Chemical & Engineering News: Metal-organic framework compound sets methane storage record
Sol-gel synthesis boosts the capacity of a common porous material.
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Chemical & Engineering News: DNA origami hits the big time
New set of techniques enables the mass-production of micrometer-sized DNA structures.
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Nature Reviews Drug Discovery: Cryo-electron microscopy makes waves in pharma labs
Companies hope the Nobel Prize-winning imaging methodology will reveal biomolecule characteristics that can guide drug discovery projects.
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Chemical & Engineering News: Beetles get by with a little help from their friends
Symbiotic bacteria with stripped-down genomes break up plant cell walls for their hosts.
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Chemistry World: The diversity challenge
Science is becoming more inclusive, but gaps remain.
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Chemical & Engineering News: Titanium nitride probe records more neurons than ever before
Neuropixels device can simultaneously record signals from hundreds of nerve cells.
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Chemistry World: Flare paths
The US government must stop trying to roll back regulations that curb gas flaring.
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Nature: Explosive moments in the laboratory
Mark Peplow surveys a gorgeous gala of reactions in Theodore Gray’s new book.
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Nature: How fracking is upending the chemical industry
As shale-gas compounds flood the market, chemists are working out the best ways to convert them into the ingredients of modern life.
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