The COVID-19 pandemic put the importance of indoor air quality in stark relief. The air in schools was of particular concern, and that concern spurred collaboration between researchers and school staff to find interventions to improve air quality to safeguard the health of students and staff. Data from indoor air monitors revealed that filter-based portable air cleaners were effective at removing airborne particulates. Ongoing research and monitoring will determine whether this effort is making a beneficial health impact and will be used to decide how to manage indoor air quality going forward. C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories. Check out the full story about air quality monitoring in schools at cenm.ag/airqualityinschools.

Cover photo: Undergraduate student Ricardo Reyes collects air quality measurements from the back of a classroom in Colorado.

Subscribe to Stereo Chemistry now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

A transcript of this episode will be available soon at cen.acs.org.

Credits

Executive producer: David Anderson

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Reporter: Fionna Samuels

Audio editor: Ted Woods

Copyeditor: Brian Vickers

Episode artwork: Glenn Asakawa/University of Colorado Boulder

Music: “Hot Chocolate,” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Contact us on social media at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

On Oct. 9, the 2024 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John M. Jumper for their work in prediction and design of protein structures. C&EN’s executive editor for life sciences, Laura Howes, joins a special episode of Stereo Chemistry to discuss why the trio won, the significance of their work around proteins, and how she accurately predicted the win in C&EN’s annual “Who Will Win?” webinar.

Stereo Chemistry offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories pulled from the pages of Chemical & Engineering News. Check out Laura’s story on how these computational chemists won this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry at cenm.ag/chemnobel2024.

In the 20th century, corporate powerhouses like Bell Labs and DuPont Central Research funded R&D from their balance sheets, creating a clear path for postdoctoral scientists to innovate beyond their university research. In 2024, with the decay of corporate laboratories, graduates are taking the commercial start-up route more and more. C&EN, business reporter Matt Blois discusses several such start-ups, exploring how the founders are making the transition from PhD to CEO and mapping the various routes they've taken to secure funding to continue their research.

C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories. Check out Matt’s story on how PhDs are learning to become CEOs at cenm.ag/chementrepreneurs

Cover photo: Laura Stoy inside a laboratory at Rivalia Chemical

Subscribe to Stereo Chemistry now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

A transcript of this episode is available at cen.acs.org.

Credits

Executive producer: David Anderson

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Reporter: Matt Blois

Audio editor: Ted Woods

Copyeditor: Bran Vickers

Episode artwork: Jim Prisching

Music: “Hot Chocolate,” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Contact us on social media at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

On average, from 2011 to 2021, academic labs generated around 4,300 metric tons of hazardous waste each year. One of the largest lab-used solvents discarded is dichloromethane and more than half of that waste ends up burned. In today’s episode, policy reporters Krystal Vasquez and Leigh Krietsch Boerner dive into the processes academic labs use to dispose of said waste, the consequences of new EPA regulations around dichloromethane, and what solutions academic institutions are coming up with to accommodate these new rules.

C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories. Check out Krystal’s story on the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations regarding dichloromethane at https://cenm.ag/dcmregs and check out Leigh’s story about solvent waste disposal in academic laboratories at https://cenm.ag/wastedisposal.

Cover photo: Lab solvents C&EN July 15th cover photo

Subscribe to Stereo Chemistry now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

A transcript of this episode will be available soon at cen.acs.org.

Credits

Executive producer(s): Gina Vitale, David Anderson

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Reporter(s): Krystal Vasquez, Leigh Krietsch Boerner

Audio editor: Ted Woods

Copyeditor: Bran Vickers

Episode artwork: Will Ludwig

Music: “Hot Chocolate,” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Contact us on social media at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org

Tragedies in the communities of Flint, Michigan, and East Palestine, Ohio, continue to affect residents 10 years and 1 year on, respectively, from the initial events. Residents of both cities continue to rebound and rebuild despite ongoing issues revolving around the toxic chemicals that were introduced to their towns through human decisions.

C&EN physical sciences reporter Priyanka Runwal traveled to both Flint and East Palestine to speak with residents about how they are recovering, how the actions of their representatives have fallen short, and their hopes to return to something of a “normal” existence in the future.

C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories. Check out Priyanka’s cover story on Flint after 10 years at cenm.ag/flint; Check out Priyanka’s cover story on East Palestine at cenm.ag/eastpalestine

Cover photo: Residents of Flint, Michigan, march arm in arm as they demand justice and accountability for their community 10 years from the beginning of the water crisis.

Subscribe to Stereo Chemistry now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

A transcript of this episode will be available soon at cen.acs.org.

Credits

Executive producer: Gina Vitale

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Reporter: Priyanka Runwal

Audio editor: Ted Woods

Copyeditor: Bran Vickers

Story editor: Laura Howes

Episode artwork: Brittany Greeson

Music: “Hot Chocolate,” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Contact us on social media at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of chemicals known as PFAS, are often called “forever chemicals” because of how long they persist in the environment. They are prevalent in drinking water and have been linked to negative health outcomes.

A slew of cleantech start-ups are cropping up with the aim of breaking down and destroying PFAS molecules. In this episode of C&EN Uncovered, reporter Britt Erickson explores the technologies behind these companies and the competition among them.

C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories. Check out Britt’s cover story on the destruction techniques for these “forever chemicals” at cenm.ag/foreverchemicals.

Cover photo: Argon gas plasma, which can break down PFAS, on the surface of liquid water

Subscribe to Stereo Chemistry now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

A transcript of this episode is available now at cen.acs.org.

Credits

Executive producer: Gina Vitale

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Reporter: Britt Erickson

Audio editor: Ted Woods

Copyeditor: Bran Vickers

Story editor: Michael McCoy

Episode artwork: Courtesy of Selma Mededovic Thagard/Clarkson University

Music: “Hot Chocolate,” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Contact us on social media at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

As the science of drug discovery has grown in scale and gotten more complicated, so have the drug molecules themselves. But there’s a promising class of drugs made of just a handful of atoms that punch above their weight by leveraging the natural chemistry of the cell.

Recent discoveries have opened up a new era of pharmaceutical chemistry that some people are calling a golden age. In this episode of C&EN Uncovered, reporter Laura Howes explains this exciting field of research and its implications for the drugs of the future.

C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories. Check out Laura’s cover story on small-molecule drugs at cenm.ag/smallmol.

Subscribe to Stereo Chemistry now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

A transcript of this episode is available at cenm.ag/smallmolpod.

Credits

Executive producer: Gina Vitale

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Reporter: Laura Howes

Audio editor: Brian Gutierrez

Copyeditor: Bran Vickers

Story editor: Mitch Jacoby

Episode artwork: Chris Gash

Music: “Hot Chocolate,” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Contact us on social media at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.

Resting on the bottom of the ocean are potato-sized nodules of valuable minerals that are more or less up for grabs. Multiple corporations and some nations are racing to build deep-sea drones that can withstand the extreme conditions at the seafloor and bring these 1-20 cm nodules to eager buyers on the surface.

Many of the metals in these nodules are critical for green technologies like batteries. But these nodules are also an important part of ecosystems we are just beginning to understand. In this episode, C&EN reporter Priyanka Runwal chats with host Craig Bettenhausen about this complex issue.

C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories. Check out Runwal’s full story at cenm.ag/seafloormine.

For more about mining the oceans, check out this episode of Stereo Chemistry from earlier this year about filtering minerals directly out of the water: cenm.ag/ocean 

Subscribe to Stereo Chemistry now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

A transcript of this episode is available at cenm.ag/deapsea.

Credits

Executive producer: Gina Vitale

C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen

Reporter: Priyanka Runwal

Audio editor: Brian Gutierrez

Copyeditor: Bran Vickers

Story editor: Laura Howes

Episode artwork: Diva Amon/Craig Smith/University of Hawaii

Music: “Hot Chocolate,” by Aves

Contact Stereo Chemistry: Contact us on social media at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.