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C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News)
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Sharing the world of #chemistry: News🗞 Research⚗️ Infographics #PeriodicGraphics ℹ Pictures #CENChemPics 📷 Comics #SketchChemistry 🗯 #FluorescenceFriday ❇️
The many paths to a thriving science career beyond the lab: There are a variety of opportunities and career paths available beyond the laboratory. cen.acs.org/acs-news/com... #chemsky 🧪
Comment: The many paths to a thriving science career beyond the lab
Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN): Keeping you up to date with the chemistry news that matters most. Published by the American Chemical Society.
cen.acs.org
December 15, 2025 at 1:14 PM
HotHouse Therapeutics says its AI and synthetic biology platform can produce compounds not possible with traditional synthesis. cen.acs.org/business/sta... #chemsky 🧪
HotHouse launches to remix plant compound biosynthesis for pharma
The company says its AI and synthetic biology platform can produce compounds not possible with traditional synthesis
cen.acs.org
December 14, 2025 at 8:51 PM
A team in China has directly converted CO₂ and methane to fuel precursors using only light. The method holds promise for utilizing carbon dioxide and methane emissions to produce fuels beyond petroleum. cen.acs.org/energy/Light... #chemsky 🧪
Light turns carbon dioxide and methane into useful chemicals
The process, which does not require catalysts or heat, could be a way to make fuels and chemicals in space
cen.acs.org
December 14, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Scientists who rely on federal funding and resources are unsure how to work with the government.

Congress is still finalizing the Fiscal Year 2026 agency budgets, and many scientists are pushing back against the recent changes. cen.acs.org/policy/nih-n... #chemsky 🧪
‘A huge rupture in everything’: US science faced major upheaval in 2025
Amid enormous shifts, many scientists pushed back and risked dismissal from their jobs even as federal agencies fired thousands of employees
cen.acs.org
December 14, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Dec. 12 Policy Watch: FDA proposes first new sunscreen molecule since 1996

In other news, the US House passes a bill barring federal agencies from procuring items from ‘biotechnology companies of concern’

cen.acs.org/policy/Dec-1...

#chemsky 🧪
Dec. 12 Policy Watch: FDA proposes first new sunscreen molecule since 1996
In other news, the US House passes a bill barring federal agencies from procuring items from ‘biotechnology companies of concern’
cen.acs.org
December 14, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Welcome to this month's crossword, constructed by Irene Cesa, a retired chemist from Wheaton, Illinois, and George Barany, professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities: cen.acs.org/education/sc...

#chemsky 🧪
December 13, 2025 at 8:45 PM
In a recent study, researchers used bacteria to produce large volumes of xanthommatin without the costs associated with historical methods of sourcing it. cen.acs.org/biological-c... #chemsky 🧪
This octopus pigment could lead to a more sustainable sunscreen
A new metabolic engineering technique makes xanthommatin cheaper and easy to produce
cen.acs.org
December 13, 2025 at 8:43 PM
The Baton Rouge Local Section of the American Chemical Society and the Baton Rouge American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) has named Rao M. Uppu the winner of the 2025 Charles E. Coates Memorial Award. cen.acs.org/acs-news/Bat... #chemsky 🧪
Baton Rouge Local Section names 2025 Coates award winner
Rao M. Uppu is a professor of environmental toxicology and chemistry
cen.acs.org
December 13, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News)
#Microscope images are dominating the Chempics Bracket, and it's down to the final. #chemsky, y'all have legit surprised the @cenmag.bsky.social staff with this.
cen.acs.org/education/sc...
Our first-ever Chempics Bracket is here. Vote for your favorite science photo
Only one photo will emerge victorious
cen.acs.org
December 12, 2025 at 7:12 PM
The past couple of weekends have been full of holiday light celebrations in many parts of the world. This warm-tinted microscope image from #CENChemPics contributor Prodipta Samadder shows fluorescent microcrystals formed from organic boron molecules. cen.acs.org/synthesis/Ch...

#chemsky 🧪
December 13, 2025 at 1:42 PM
While you never know what the future holds, you can be ready for anything by increasing your professional flexibility, or your willingness and ability to successfully do new and different things. cen.acs.org/careers/care... #chemsky 🧪
Practice career flexibility
Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN): Keeping you up to date with the chemistry news that matters most. Published by the American Chemical Society.
cen.acs.org
December 13, 2025 at 1:34 PM
The biotechnology firm ProLynx has raised $70 million in a series A fundraising to develop weight-loss drugs that require less frequent dosing. cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic... #chemsky 🧪
ProLynx raises $70 million to develop its long-lasting weight-loss drug pipeline
The California biotech aims to make its mark on the market with chemistry that can extend the half-life of drugs like semaglutide by at least a month
cen.acs.org
December 13, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Two magnesium start-ups—Magrathea Metals and Tidal Metals—are making plans to start production of the metal in the US. cen.acs.org/materials/St... #chemsky 🧪
Start-ups advance US magnesium plans
Projects based on new chemistry could offset the loss of domestic supply from a troubled Utah plant
cen.acs.org
December 12, 2025 at 7:47 PM
A new start-up called PsiThera has spun out of Roivant Sciences with $47 million and a computational drug discovery platform that, its creator says, “only takes about a minute of training” for drugmakers to use. cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic... #chemsky 🧪
PsiThera launches with $47 million and computational chemistry tools
After starting life as a Roivant spinout, the start-up is stepping out on its own
cen.acs.org
December 12, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Our Lone Pair matchup of the ChemPics Bracket Challenge sees the nanocrystals of Felipe Quiroga-Suavita facing off against Gustavo P. Caraballo's scanning electron microscope. Get your final vote in for your favorite ChemPic of the year! cen.acs.org/education/sc...

#CENChemPics #chemsky 🧪
December 12, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Researchers have been trying to create devices that naturally emit polarized light to avoid the resulting loss of light. A team at the University of Oxford has now come up with a new device that utilizes an efficient mechanism to emit polarized light.
cen.acs.org/materials/ph... #chemsky 🧪
A path to creating polarized OLED displays
A new mechanism steers diodes made of a single enantiomer to emit light of right- and left-handed polarizations
cen.acs.org
December 12, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has pivoted its well-staffed nuclear programs from weapons to nuclear energy research. cen.acs.org/energy/nucle... #chemsky 🧪
Once a victim of nuclear testing, Kazakhstan now works on nuclear fusion
Once a testing ground for Soviet weapons, the country is using a unique facility to find materials that withstand plasma that’s 10 times as hot as the sun’s core
cen.acs.org
December 12, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Early humans may have created fire 400,000 years ago, according to evidence unearthed at an archaeological site in England. cen.acs.org/analytical-c... #chemsky 🧪
Earliest evidence of human fire starters unearthed
Discovery of iron pyrite at a site in England pushes back the date of human fire creation by 350,000 years
cen.acs.org
December 11, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Three new papers report improvements to enzyme design using diffusion models, a class of generative artificial intelligence algorithms that add and then subtract noise. cen.acs.org/physical-che... #chemsky 🧪
A trio of AI methods tackles enzyme design
RFdiffusion2, RFdiffusion3, and Riff-Diff each solve different structural problems in computational enzyme design
cen.acs.org
December 11, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Actions such as canceling grants, dismissing agency heads, and proposing massive budget cuts upended the federal process for funding US research in 2025. cen.acs.org/policy/nih-n... #chemsky 🧪
‘A huge rupture in everything’: US science faced major upheaval in 2025
Amid enormous shifts, many scientists pushed back and risked dismissal from their jobs even as federal agencies fired thousands of employees
cen.acs.org
December 11, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News)
I think it says a lot about the current moment that we chose molecule that is surprisingly holding itself together despite a thermodynamic incentive to break down...
We asked, you voted! Hexanitrogen is your 2025 Molecule of the Year! To get all the details on the spectacular finalists, check out our full coverage at cen.acs.org/synthesis/Mo...

#chemsky 🧪
December 10, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News)
I am genuinely fascinated by how this is going to change things, and there are some really fascinating titbits for nerds like me in here
In 2026, Novo Nordisk’s patent on semaglutide will expire in several countries, including India and China. Industry experts say semaglutide drugs will become cheaper and more accessible for patients with diabetes and obesity. cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic... #chemsky 🧪
Nozempic? A look at what will happen when GLP-1 drugs go off patent in some countries next year
India and China are among the countries where knockoffs of Wegovy and Ozempic can be sold next year
cen.acs.org
December 10, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News)
For @cenmag.bsky.social, I tried to summarize what happened in science policy in 2025. Spoiler: A lot!

Thanks to Ian Banks, @jeremymberg.bsky.social, Arthur Daemmrich, @cdelawalla.bsky.social and @ucs.org Jen Jones for their insights.

Out soon: what to expect in 2026

cen.acs.org/policy/nih-n...
‘A huge rupture in everything’: US science faced major upheaval in 2025
Amid enormous shifts, many scientists pushed back and risked dismissal from their jobs even as federal agencies fired thousands of employees
cen.acs.org
December 10, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News)
The color-changing pigment xanthommatin may also lead to better, petroleum-free paints. What can't octopuses do?! 🐙 @theoceanwriter.bsky.social has the story for @cenmag.bsky.social cen.acs.org/biological-c...
This octopus pigment could lead to a more sustainable sunscreen
A new metabolic engineering technique makes xanthommatin cheaper and easy to produce
cen.acs.org
December 10, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News)