Stereo Chemistry Chemical & Engineering News

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.

The Nobel Prize announcements are big events at Chemical & Engineering News. But we find out the winners at the same time as everyone else. 
 
Then, the race is on for our reporters. 
 
This year, staffers Laurel Oldach and Mitch Jacoby took on the task of covering the science prizes. In this episode, they reflect on this year’s winning research in chemistry and medicine and share what it’s like covering the most prestigious prizes in science.
 
C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories. Check out our reporting on the 2023 Nobel Prizes at https://cen.acs.org/magazine/101/10133.html.
 
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/nobelpod23
Credits
Executive producer: Gina Vitale
Host: Gina Vitale
Reporters: Mitch Jacoby and Laura Oldach
Audio editor: Brian Gutierrez
Copyeditor: Bran Vickers
Story editor: Chris Gorski
Episode artwork: Milad Abolhasani/NCSU
Music: “Hot Chocolate,” by Aves
Contact Stereo Chemistry: Contact us on social media at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.
 

The first issue of C&EN was published in 1923 with the stated purpose of “the promotion of research, the development of the chemical industry, and the welfare of the chemist.” 
The world of chemistry has grown a lot since then, and the magazine has been there to report on it all.
To celebrate our 100th anniversary, C&EN reporter and informal historian Alex Tullo has sifted through thousands of issues of the magazine, and in this episode, he guides our host Craig Bettenhausen on a tour through the magazine’s history from the industrialization of plastics, to the environmental movement, to the modern era of digital publication. 
When this episode was recorded, Tullo was preparing the From the Archives feature for the 1980s, which is now published.
C&EN Uncovered, a project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent stories. Read Alex’s entire series about the C&EN archives at cenm.ag/fromthearchives.
A transcript of this episode can be found at http://cenm.ag/100yearspod.
Credits
Executive producer: Gina Vitale
C&EN Uncovered host: Craig Bettenhausen
Reporter: Alex Tullo
Audio editor: Brian Gutierrez
Copyeditor: Bran Vickers
Story editor: Manny I. Fox Morone
Episode artwork: Shutterstock/Kay Youn/Will Ludwig/C&EN
Music: “Hot Chocolate” by Aves
Contact Stereo Chemistry: Contact us on social media @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.
 

Early-career scientists are increasingly gravitating toward science policy, but the transition from the research bench to the policy office can be a tricky one. What can that path look like, and how can chemistry knowledge translate into a successful science policy career? In this bonus episode of C&EN’s Bonding Time, Mark Feuer DiTusa sits down with recent science PhD graduates and science policy professionals Jennifer DiStefano and Jared Mondschein to hear about their intertwined journeys, what science policy looks like for them, and how they think policy is shaping the direction of chemistry in the US.
You can find the episode where we spoke with six chemists about their yearlong science policy fellowships in Washington, DC, at http://cenm.ag/lessons.
You can connect with Jennifer DiStefano and Jared Mondschein at their LinkedIn pages.
A transcript of this episode can be found at http://cenm.ag/scipolicy
Credits
Executive producer: Gina Vitale
Writer: Mark Feuer DiTusa
Audio editor: Mark Feuer DiTusa, Brian Gutierrez
Story editor: Ariana Remmel
Copyeditor: Sabrina Ashwell, Michael McCoy
Show logo design: William A. Ludwig
Episode artwork: William A. Ludwig
Music (in order of appearance): “The Beat Detector” by Novembers, "Sugar Cubes" by Avner Kelmer
Contact Stereo Chemistry: Tweet at us at @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.
 

Hydrogen might be the key to a clean energy future, but only if it can be made without fossil fuels. Most hydrogen today is made from methane.
 
With generous government tax credits and enthusiasm for sustainable technology, the race is on for green hydrogen.
 
Craig Bettenhausen, our usual host, guides C&EN associate editor Gina Vitale through the hydrogen rainbow and how the periodic table’s number 1 element could become the number 1 fuel.
 
C&EN Uncovered, a new project from C&EN’s podcast, Stereo Chemistry, offers a deeper look at subjects from recent cover stories. Read Bettenhausen’s July 3, 2023, cover story about hydrogen electrolyzers at cenm.ag/hydrolyzers.
 
A transcript of this episode is available at cenm.ag/greenhydrogen.
 
Credits
 
Executive producer: Gina Vitale
Host: Gina Vitale
Cover story reporter: Craig Bettenhausen
Audio editor: Brian Gutierrez
Story editor: Michael McCoy
Copyeditor: Sabrina Ashwell
Show logo design: William A. Ludwig
Episode artwork: Nel
Music: “Hot Chocolate” by Aves
 
Contact Stereo Chemistry: Tweet at us @cenmag or email cenfeedback@acs.org.