Highlights
C&EN: Hydrogen plasma offers sustainable nickel production
30 April 2025Electric arc furnace tackles low-grade ores, emitting much less carbon dioxide than conventional methods.
C&EN: Lanthanide orbitals spring a reaction surprise
23 April 2025Not known for their outgoing nature, 4f orbitals have been caught steering a reaction for the first time.
Nature Index: How the US tech industry is shaping the transition to green energy
20 March 2025Major investments to fuel AI’s power demands are not the only way big tech is having an influence.
Engineering: Electric Vehicle Market Slowly Edges Toward Solid-State Batteries
03 March 2025Companies are gradually overcoming technical challenges with batteries that offer longer driving range and safer operation.
C&EN: ‘Berkelocene’ puts exotic berkelium in a sandwich
28 February 2025Researchers find bonding surprises at the extreme end of organometallic chemistry.
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
Nature: Robot chemist sparks row with claim it created new materials
Researchers question whether an AI-controlled lab assistant actually made any novel substances.
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Nature: Google AI and robots join forces to build new materials
Google DeepMind tool predicts nearly 400,000 stable substances, and an autonomous system learns to make them in the lab.
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Nature: A new kind of solar cell is coming: is it the future of green energy?
Firms commercializing perovskite–silicon ‘tandem’ photovoltaics say that the panels will be more efficient and could lead to cheaper electricity.
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C&EN: Lithium-ion battery recycling goes large
As companies scramble to increase recycling capacity, they are navigating a tricky path through shifting battery chemistries and a raft of new regulations.
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C&EN 10 Start-ups to Watch: DePoly
Recycling complex plastic waste for a circular economy.
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C&EN: Antifungal analog offers reduced toxicity
Improved version of amphotericin B is now in clinical trial, but debate continues about its mechanism of action.
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C&EN: Skeletal edit swaps carbon for nitrogen
Single-atom edit offers medicinal chemists a direct route from quinolines to quinazolines.
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C&EN: A shocking way to produce hydrogen from plastic waste
Flash Joule heating converts polymers into low-cost hydrogen and graphene.
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C&EN: Catalyst persuades alcohols to offer a helping hand for C-H activation
Tailored ligand on palladium catalyst uses hydrogen bonding to orchestrate reaction.
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Nature Biotechnology: ‘Clicked’ drugs: researchers prove the remarkable chemistry in humans
Bioorthogonal click chemistry is being used in patients to help target cancer medicines and diagnostic imaging agents.
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