Highlights
C&EN: Europium complex harvests ambient energy to power minirobots
20 November 2025Inchworms can stroll for hours using scraps of heat from the environment.
Nature Biotechnology: Chemistry Nobel materials in the clinic
14 November 2025Human trials using metal–organic frameworks for drug delivery are underway, but challenges remain.
C&EN: Trace additive cleans up Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
31 October 2025A dash of bromomethane curbs carbon dioxide emissions from industrial process used to make olefins from syngas.
Nature: AI is dreaming up millions of new materials. Are they any good?
03 October 2025Critics slammed attempts by Google, Microsoft and Meta to speed up materials discovery. But behind the hype, there is progress.
Nature: How should ‘mirror life’ research be restricted? Debate heats up
16 September 2025Some researchers are calling for strict limits, while others speak out against prematurely halting basic science.
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
C&EN: Robot assistant optimizes photochemistry
RoboChem combines flow chemistry and machine learning to improve yield of light-driven reactions.
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C&EN: Molecular shuttle thinks inside the box
Flat guest molecules zoom back and forth within iridium-based nanobox.
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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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