Katharine Sanderson

Feb 8, 2024 | nature.com | Katharine Sanderson

Chemists have shown it is possible to use mass spectrometry — a technique commonly used to identify molecules by mass — to separate chiral molecules, those that exist as different forms with identical atoms but mirror-image structures that can’t be superimposed on each other. The technique, described today in Science1, could one day have applications in drug discovery. The different versions of chiral molecules — called enantiomers — often have very different properties.

Jan 17, 2024 | nature.com | Katharine Sanderson

New restrictions on UK visas are making the country unattractive to foreign scientists who want to work or study there, researchers say. In December, the UK government announced that it intends to increase the salary threshold for foreign nationals wishing to enter the United Kingdom on a skilled worker visa from £26,200 to £38,700. The change hasn’t been implemented yet, but might affect postdoctoral researchers, whose salaries are often below the new cut-off.

Dec 20, 2023 | nature.com | Katharine Sanderson

Chemists have used ChatGPT to design and conduct complex chemical reactions using a robotic laboratory set-up. The system, called Coscientist, can design, code and carry out several reactions — making compounds including paracetamol and aspirin in the wet lab using its robot apparatus. The approach was described in Nature1 on 20 December.

Dec 13, 2023 | nature.com | Katharine Sanderson

Scientists have voiced mixed reactions to a pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” made by the world's governments at the end of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. “It’s major,” says Lisa Schipper a developmental geographer at the University of Bonn, Germany. Previous end-of-COP declarations have failed to mention fossil fuels in this way — at COP26 in Glasgow, delegates pledged to “phase down” unabated coal, which was regarded as a first at the time.

Nov 29, 2023 | nature.com | Katharine Sanderson

Scientists are working to better understand a type of swine flu that was detected in a person in the UK for the first time. Swine flu typically circulates in pigs but caused a human pandemic in 2009 that killed an estimated 284,000 people. The virus detected in the UK individual was influenza A H1N2, which is known to have infected 50 people worldwidesince 2005.