Jennifer Newton

Jan 20, 2025 | chemistryworld.com | Jennifer Newton

Since the oral contraceptive pill was introduced in the 1960s, the range of contraception methods available to women has expanded and helped to avoid unplanned pregnancies. With freedom of choice, they have been empowered to pursue opportunities in work or higher education, and escape the social stigma and medical risks of having an abortion. Still, when any contraception fails, it’s the woman who bears the brunt of that failure.

Sep 25, 2024 | chemistryworld.com | Jennifer Newton

What will nanopore sequencing turn its hand to next? There’s a certain elegance to nanopore-based sensors. By monitoring how an electric current changes in response to analytes entering a nanopore, it’s possible to discern between all sorts of molecules and ions. In particular, nanopore-based technology has sparked breathtaking advances in our ability to chart the order of nucleotides in DNA molecules. It can read long (we’re talking in the multi-kilobase-scale), and it can read fast.

Sep 12, 2024 | chemistryworld.com | Jennifer Newton

Anthony Green’s research group at the University of Manchester, UK, reengineers enzymes to have catalytic functions beyond those found in natureCan scientists design and engineer artificial enzymes to make the chemicals that society needs, with the selectivities and efficiencies of natural enzymes? That’s the ultimate question motivating research in Anthony Green’s lab at the University of Manchester, UK.

Apr 2, 2024 | chemistryworld.com | Jennifer Newton

We have Jöns Jacob Berzelius to thank for allotropes. He first coined the term in the early 19th century to signify that two forms of the same element (or compounds with similar compositions) could be different, such as monoclinic and rhombic sulfur. At times, the concept has been mocked.

Feb 26, 2024 | chemistryworld.com | Jennifer Newton

Several elements mixed in a single crystal phase isn’t necessarily a high entropy materialAlmost 20 years have passed since Jien-Wei Yeh and Brian Cantor first – but separately – reported how they had combined equimolar (or near-equimolar) concentrations of multiple different metal elements to make single-phase alloys. Before then, both had spent years developing what we now call high entropy alloys completely unaware of the other, yet those initial papers appeared just months apart.