Pandemic accord set for 2024
The 194 Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) have mapped out a negotiation timetable for a global accord on pandemic preparedness, with a draft accord to be presented for approval by the World Health Assembly in May 2024.
Applied chemistry
Read the latest applied chemistry highlights for May 2023 by Nigel P Freestone | University of Northampton, UK.
Brighter ideas
Sharon Todd, SCI CEO, looks back over five years of Bright SCIdea – SCI’s own entrepreneurial contest for young scientists
eTextiles: The future
A shirt that can track a person’s heart rate, a shoe that can measure gait – the integration of electronic components with textiles to form e-textiles has been a significant research interest for several years.
Can we root out false medicines with DNA?
A new forensic DNA tracking technique recently piloted in falsified medicines could be developed into a tool to identify the source of fake drugs and help bring criminals to justice.
Valuable information
Hospitals, pharmacies and healthcare providers are now realising the benefit of data to protect patient safety. Consequently, pharmaceutical manufacturers are under pressure to provide greater levels of granular information on products than current legislation requires.
Inspiring women in science
Statistics show that less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women and only 12% of members of national science academies are women. Leadership roles in the scientific industry, meanwhile, have historically been dominated by men and this continues to be a trend.
Imperial materials
Imperial College London, UK, has launched a new facility dedicated to innovation in advanced materials through collaboration between academia and industry.
Beyond the Horizon...
The UK government has set out a plan to ‘protect and support the UK’s research and innovation sector’, as discussions with the European Commission concerning access to Horizon Europe continue.
Groundwater concerns
New chemicals have been found in water taken from Danish waterworks, including several that pose health concerns. Chemists from the University of Copenhagen detected more than 400 compounds in an untargeted analysis of groundwater (Environmental Pollution, doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119758).