The Royal Society of Chemistry's Chemistry World magazine reports that UK university chemistry departments are relieved to discover that applications for chemistry degrees have held steady despite the increase in tuition fees for degree courses in England and Wales and the almost 10% decline in overall applications. Good news for chemistry, although the news that AstraZeneca is laying off thousands of staff in the wake of Pfizer lab closures makes you wonder where all the bright young chemists are going to work. Accountancy, perhaps? Plus ca change.
Tag Archives: UK
Water passes through leaky graphene
January 27, 2012 – 2:37 pm
My latest news story for Chemistry World discusses how UK researchers (Andre Geim and colleagues at Manchester) have created a graphene-based membrane that allows water molecules through but not helium atoms. It's as if they've found a sieve that sieves out glass marbles from sand but doesn't let the much smaller grains of sand through. It's yet another example of how weird and wonderful is water and how endlessly fascinating is graphene.
The discovery of such a membrane material might ultimately have applications in a whole range of industries including effective separation of hydrogen from liquid or gaseous mixtures for fuel production. It could also have potential application in a novel class of fuel cell or for desalination of brine or seawater.
Read my full story here together with commentary from NIST's graphene expert Alex Smolyanitsky.
Intelligent packaging to detect spoiled food
November 19, 2011 – 12:00 am
Four reasons why open pharma might succeed
October 30, 2011 – 11:00 pm
British study may improve glaucoma assessment and treatment
October 27, 2011 – 12:00 am
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