Rotary evaporators are used to remove chemical solvents from the products of reactions.Credit: Forance/Alamy An analysis of 1.3 million chemical reactions listed in patents over four decades has shown that chemists still depend heavily on hazardous solvents, despite a nearly 30-year campaign to make chemistry ‘greener’ using safer, more sustainable alternatives. The survey is the
Digital wearables are currently used to monitor glucose, but could potentially be used to measure substances such as glutamate and cortisol.Credit: Halfpoint Images/Getty The year is 2036. Researchers conducting a randomized clinical trial issue 200 volunteers with wearable devices to capture metrics on their heart rate, blood pressure, hormone levels and activity. Doses of a
Brian Nosek, the executive director for the Open Science Framework, announced last month that the platform will soon stop hosting code, data and supplementary materials for researchers. Credit: Kirsten Luce/New York Times/Redux/eyevine The co-founder of a prominent open-science platform has announced that funding uncertainties have forced the site to make changes to some of its
Credit: Ezra Acayan/Getty Text messages and a weekly 20-minute phone call from a teacher can improve children’s learning during prolonged school closures, finds a large trial conducted in five countries1. The approach offers a relatively cheap way to support children when schooling is disrupted by pandemics, natural disasters or other emergencies, say the study authors.
The World Bank’s headquarters in Washington DC.Credit: J. David Ake/Getty For years, the social and behavioural sciences have lived with an open secret: findings from studies in these fields can be difficult to reproduce. When independent researchers are unable to arrive at the same result as the original team despite using identical data and the
Activists in San Marcos, Texas, protested against proposed data centres that would power artificial-intelligence systems.Credit: Sara Diggins/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty As public opposition grows against the soaring energy and water demands of data centres powering the artificial-intelligence boom, some technology companies are talking about putting these facilities in space. For instance, businessman Elon Musk’s
