Ionic liquid formulation for safer herbicide

12-Jul-2013 - An international collaboration of scientists has formulated a commonly used weed-killer as an ionic liquid to reduce its environmental impact. Research published in Green Chemistry describes how the scientists have created a less volatile and less water soluble form of the herbicide dicamba, by ...

Former Royal Society of Chemistry Chief Executive Dr Richard Pike dies

29-Jul-2011 - Dr Richard Pike has died at the age of 61. Dr Pike stood down as the RSC’s chief executive in February this year after five successful years at the helm of the learned society. Under his leadership, membership reached a record high of more than 47,500. Among other notable achievements, 10 new ...

Osborne’s ‘budget for growth’ finally provides some good news for science – but long-term question marks remain

25-Mar-2011 - George Osborne’s budget for growth is to be welcomed as a much needed boost for science and enterprise, according to the president of the Royal Society of Chemistry.The chancellor’s growth-boosting initiatives such as the creation of 21 new Enterprise Zones (EZ) and research and development (R&D) ...

Winner of Cram Lehn Pedersen Prize 2011 announced

18-Feb-2011 - Professor Amar Flood, from Indiana University, USA, has won the inaugural Cram Lehn Pedersen prize. The prize, sponsored by Royal Society of Chemistry journal Chemical Communications and named in honour of the winners of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, recognises significant, original and ...

Predicting polymorph stability

26-Jan-2011 - UK chemists have developed new multidisciplinary approaches that could be vital to the chemical and pharmaceutical development of new drugs. Robert Lancaster and colleagues have observed the stability of polymorphic organic compounds and researched how the nature and amount of different ...

RSC calls on the government to “invest in excellence”

07-Oct-2010 - The Royal Society of Chemistry in its submission to the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review called for the government to make investing in the science base a high priority. The RSC provided evidence to the Treasury on the past and future contribution of the chemical sciences, which makes an ...

Glycopolymers in two ‘clicks’

21-Apr-2009 - Scientists in the UK prepare polymers containing two different clickable groups that can be functionalised using two click reactions. Sugars play an important role in biological recognition, in processes such as fertilisation and viral infection. The interaction between sugars and proteins can ...

Si-F bond breaking

16-Feb-2009 - Scientists in the UK have prepared a unique silicon(IV) cation by breaking a very strong Si-F bond under mild conditions. Chemists at the University of Southampton have prepared the trifluorosilicon(IV) cation [SiF3(Me3tacn)]+, by reaction of SiF4 with Me3tacn under anhydrous conditions and ...

UK chemists warn of funding crisis

Sharp drop in grant numbers hits young scientists and blue skies research

22-Oct-2008 - Senior researchers have warned that a sharp drop in the number of research grants awarded this year risks damaging UK chemistry. Young chemists applying for first-time grants have suffered most under widespread changes to the funding strategy of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research ...

Tagging-detagging for purification of radiotracers

10-Jun-2008 - Veronique Gouverneur and colleagues from the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, Cheshire, have developed a novel tagging-detagging strategy. This could be extremely useful for the purification of known and novel 18F-radiotracers for Positron Emission Tomography. It is the first detagging ...