The ethics of chemistry occupies an uncomfortable position in the landscape of applied ethics. Even though a significant proportion of the moral challenges generated by contemporary molecular intervention are, at their root, chemical — produced by chemistry's characteristic capacity to decompose, recombine, and produce matter in novel configurations — the living space of ethics of chemistry has been systematically colonised by bioethics, ethics of technology, and public policy discourse. This paper argues that this colonisation reflects a structural misalignment: bioethics is constituted at the level of application rather than at the level of the founding conditions of molecular intervention. To address this gap, the paper proposes the concept of chemethics — an ethics of a type of intervention rather than a disciplinary or professional ethics, applicable wherever chemistry's constitutive agenda operates. Drawing on the genealogy of molecularism, the alchemical dream of total transformation, and the philosophy of chemistry, the paper develops three principles of chemethics — the underdetermination principle, the levels principle, and the limit principle — understood as second-order constraints on any adequate ethics of molecular intervention. The paper concludes that chemethics and bioethics are complementary frameworks: the former addressing the founding conditions of molecular intervention, the latter the application-level questions that arise from them.
This study optimized the extraction of natural dyes from Bischofia javanica Blume leaves using a Soxhlet apparatus, with process conditions determined by response surface methodology and a central composite design (RSM-CCD). The effects of extraction temperature (46–74 °C) and time (0.6–3.4 h) were investigated over 14 experimental runs. Extraction efficiency, quantified by measuring absorbance at 430 nm using UV-Vis spectrophotometry, was maximized at optimized conditions of approximately 70 °C for 2 hours, yielding a threefold increase in absorbance compared to lower temperatures. The main dye fraction (F3) was purified and isolated using gravity column chromatography on silica gel and confirmed by TLC. The dyed cotton fabric was evaluated for its physical fastness properties (light, wash, perspiration, and rubbing). Characterization techniques, including UV-Vis, FTIR, and HPLC, identified isoquercetin as the primary dye compound along with berberine and eugenol, confirming that the extract is rich in flavonoids. At an 8% dye concentration, cotton treated with potassium aluminum sulfate mordant showed higher color strength (K/S) and exhibited excellent light fastness (grade 6–7), very good wash fastness (rating 4), and dry rubbing fastness (rating 4). Perspiration fastness was better under acidic conditions (3-4) due to stable aluminum-flavonoid complexes, which enhanced photostability and wash resistance compared to unmordanted fabric. This study demonstrates that Bischofia javanica leaves are a promising source of natural dyes for sustainable textiles and highlights how statistical optimization can significantly improve extraction efficiency, supporting potential eco-friendly industrial applications.
The traditional metaphor of DNA as a language is examined through systematic analysis, using formal linguistic categories rather than relying on heuristic analogies. By exploring aspects of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and diachrony, the study investigates the structural parallels between genetic sequences and human spoken and written languages, while also identifying the fundamental limitations of this comparison. The analysis indicates that DNA displays distinct symbolic units, a combinatorial organization, strict ordering constraints, context dependence, and historical evolution. These characteristics resemble written language more closely than they do speech. However, DNA fundamentally differs from human language in several ways: it lacks intentionality, reference, generativity, and representational meaning. Genetic “meaning” is defined by its operational and causal roles, focusing on biochemical functions rather than semantic interpretations. This study emphasizes that DNA should not be viewed as a literal language but rather as a system of symbols grounded in chemistry. The comparison with linguistics is most useful for establishing distinctions rather than for expanding metaphorical interpretations.
The Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products (RAGE) is a multifunctional cell-surface receptor capable of binding a broad range of ligands, including advanced glycation end products (AGEs). While RAGE is constitutively expressed in various tissues, AGEs arise from non-enzymatic reactions between reducing sugars and proteins, lipids, or nucleic acids. The AGE–RAGE interaction activates multiple redox-sensitive and pro-inflammatory signaling pathways, thereby contributing significantly to ageing, chronic inflammatory conditions, and metabolic degenerative diseases. Consequently, targeting the AGE–RAGE axis has become an important focus of contemporary biomedical research. Although substantial progress has been made in elucidating this pathway and developing synthetic AGE–RAGE inhibitors, many of these agents present limitations related to safety, bioavailability, or therapeutic efficacy. Phytochemicals such as polyphenols, alkaloids, and tannins have exhibited promising antiglycation, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities that may attenuate AGE–RAGE mediated cellular dysfunction. However, direct evidence of their capacity to inhibit RAGE at the receptor level remains limited. This review identifies critical knowledge gaps and demonstrates that structure-guided computational modeling combined with targeted experimental validation represents a promising strategy for the rational development of phytochemical-based RAGE modulators. These findings highlight the potential of natural products as safer and mechanistically informed therapeutic candidates for attenuating AGE–RAGE-mediated degenerative disease progression.
Across evaluation panels for funding and job positions and strategic research agendas a clear pattern has emerged: scientific research is increasingly expected to justify itself through immediate applicability. Grant calls emphasize industrial partnerships, technological transfer, measurable impact, and short-term deliverables. Proposals are routinely evaluated and selected not only for their intellectual value but largely for their potential to generate marketable products, policy instruments, or societal solutions within tight timeframes. The emphasis on applicability is comprehensible but on its own it cannot justify the current trend. Basic science—driven by curiosity rather than by immediate use—is the foundation upon which applied innovation ultimately rests.
The Cambridge University Department of Colloid Science, founded in 1930, was suppressed by the University after the retirement of the Department head, Roughton, in 1966. The closure was long and acrimonious, requiring two debates in the University Senate House and a University-wide vote. Decisions were taken by committees that included three Nobel Prize winners and many distinguished Cambridge scientists, but there was little consultation with the wider UK colloid science community, either academic or industrial. In times of financial stringency it is sometimes necessary to close university departments, and this review of an unsatisfactory closure may help future generations of university administrators to avoid some of the potential pitfalls.
This study highlights the implementation of Pictorial-Based Learning (PcBL) in basic chemistry classes and assesses its contribution to students' argumentation skills and understanding of chemistry. Thirty-five students aged 19-21 years enrolled in general chemistry, covering solubility & intermolecular forces, gas laws, kinetic molecular theory, and thermochemistry, at Universitas Negeri Malang, East Java, Indonesia, participated in this study. The intervention was conducted over one term/semester. Students' argumentation skills were assessed at the end of each topic and classified using Toulmin's Argument Pattern (TAP), which comprises claims, data, warrants, backing, and rebuttals. This study uncovered the following outcomes. The implementation of PcBL contributed to improving students' argumentation skills. However, no students demonstrated the highest level (5). Most students' argumentation skills ranged from Level 3 to Level 4, with Level 3 being the most common. Therefore, it implies an adequate contribution of the approach in improving students' argumentation skills. However, the correlation between students' argumentation skills and their understanding of chemistry was not substantial. This study amplifies the need for the PcBL in broader chemistry teaching across cohorts and topics. Its contribution to forming other students' soft skills is also a worthwhile future exercise.
The large-scale production of plastics and their subsequent dispersal into water bodies have harmful impacts on aquatic environments. Despite being major manufacturers of plastic waste, developing countries have inadequate research on microplastics in freshwater ecosystems. This study examines the occurrence, abundance, and distribution of microplastic particles in the basins of the Kabani River, a region of the Western Ghats in Wayanad. The sampling was conducted at eight study stations across the Kabani River basin and analysed for microplastics using a density separation method. Identification of the microplastic particles was made using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) with Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR). The average abundance of microplastics collected from the major tributaries of the Kabani River was 0.103 ± 0.18 particles/L (median 0.0135 particles/L) during the study. Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) was the prevalent polymer collected in the samples. As Wayanad's first report on microplastic particles in the Kabani River, this study catalyzes additional investigation into the distribution and effects of this new contaminant on the biota of several aquatic systems throughout Kerala and India.
This article presents the life and work of Carl Schorlemmer, one of the least remembered chemists in Organic Chemistry from the second half of the 19th century. His decisive investigation of alkanes as a basis for an organization of Organic Chemistry, other experimental investigations, his theoretical points of view, his activity as a historian of Chemistry and his relations with socialism are discussed.
While seeking for newer and wider horizons in science and technology, some scientists appear to be challenging common life in a way that - in time - may eventually destroy life on Earth and therefore mankind. For the moment this risk is still far away, but it may become one of the worse scenarios on the planet. To introduce this discussion, we need a mirror. “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” was the resounding question that the Evil Queen uttered when consulting her magic mirror to be reassured that she was still the most beautiful lady in the land. (At least until Snow White entered the scene). But “our” mirror will be used in another way. We know that a chiral molecule can exist in two different forms, which are perfectly specular (here is the mirror) but they cannot be superposed. Hands and feet are the most common example we teach chirality to our students. In fact in Greek χειρ means hand.
This article is an analysis of the book “The Periodic Table”, which derives from Primo Levi’s praxis. This is an attempt to highlight the reason for the communicative practice and subject-object relationship involved in his book’s production. The analysis was based on both praxis categories and the subject/object opposition unit emerging from historical and dialectical materialism. Accordingly, we mobilize and advocate for a science communication concept based on the sense of praxis that is not limited to the discursive aspects of this production type. Based on the sources’ selection carried out in the collection of “Centro Internazionale di Studi Primo Levi”, this book can be the very result of Levi’s transformative praxis, which was driven by a liberating human development substantiated by science. Science outspread as transformative praxis in Primo Levi’s work and in the subject/object relationship observed it. Human development was the reason for his practice, and it was driven by a liberating perspective, by outspreading a science that could help expanding the concept of world and society. This reason is linked to his biography and activities, which play a potential humanizing role in relationships man set with nature and society. The present article sought to broaden the understanding of SC as praxis based on a case study and to stand against a narrow view of SC and the superficial reasons often linked to it.
This study aims to describe the mental models of secondary school students and examine their relationship with the chemistry mindset. The research involved 122 secondary school students in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. Data were collected using a structured descriptive assessment and a chemistry mindset questionnaire. Students’ mental models were categorized according to Kurnaz and Eksi’s indicators, covering initial, synthetic, and scientific models. Meanwhile, the Chemistry Mindset Instrument employed the framework established by Santos et al. and categorized as fixed and growth mindsets. Pearson’s coefficient measures the correlation between the mental model and the chemistry mindset. This study finds that many of the students’ mental models fall into initial and synthetic categories, with only a small number in the scientific category. The proportion of students with the synthetic model peaks in the formation of ions at 63.11%, in the initial category of covalent bonding at 54.92%, and in the scientific category of coordinate covalent bonding at 18.85%. Furthermore, this study indicates a weak relationship between the mental model and the chemistry mindset. Students’ confidence during chemistry class influences this issue. Therefore, teachers are expected to select appropriate learning models to enhance students’ achievement and mindset toward chemistry.
Graphic representations of three-dimensional structures play a pivotal role both in academic research and chemical education. Nevertheless, their deceptive simplicity can lead school and even university students to an incorrect understanding of these representations that are central for both organic and inorganic chemistry. A deep knowledge of their symbolic meaning is, indeed, essential to avoid a meaningless learning of the discipline. Two important historical examples, the three-dimensional representations of tetrahedral carbon and the geometry of metal complexes, are discussed in this paper. More in detail, this work investigates the way in which these three-dimensional formulae were received and presented in school and university textbooks published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before the introduction of techniques of structural investigation such as X-ray crystallography. Given the difficulty of finding all textbooks published in that period worldwide, the creation of a freely accessible database is also encouraged. Generally underestimated in historical investigations, old chemistry manuals are, in fact, essential to understand how the discipline has been taught in the past.
Positronium science has for more than half a century been an important research area located somewhere between physics and chemistry. Based upon the study of positrons and the electron-positron atom called positronium, the field was originally part of atomic physics but soon became embraced also by the chemists. In this article I present a first preliminary study of the origin and early history of positronium science with an emphasis on its chemical aspects. It includes a so-called prehistory going back a long time before the discovery of the positron, at a time when the ether was sometimes conceived as consisting of pairs of oppositely charged electrons. Apart from positronium, the intertwined history of muonium – where the electrons are replaced by the heavier muons – is also described. More generally, the paper discusses from a historical perspective how various kinds of exotic atoms, antiatoms and superheavy atoms included, have become parts of the chemical sciences.
Victor Meyer (1848-1897) is one of the great organic chemists of the second half of the 19th century. While his extensive experimental work in Organic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry is well known among chemists, little is known about his personal life and his professional career. The aim of this article is to contribute to filling this gap by presenting not only his research activities (aliphatic nitro compounds, oximes, thiophene, aromatic compounds containing iodine, stereochemistry, vapor density determination, pyrochemistry), but also details of his academic career in Zurich, Göttingen, and Heidelberg, as well as his personality and personal life, until his tragic end.
This manuscript presents an historical perspective prepared by Barry Ninham and Colin Pask in 1969 on the connection between quantum electrodynamics theory and nucleon interactions. A new theory of strong interactions based on electromagnetic considerations is proposed. Energy and force range magnitudes are correctly given. A new theory of the pion emerges and the pion mass and lifetime are calculated. No strong interaction coupling constant is required.
Aim: The lack of precision of validated electrochemical identification methods and the limited detection of compounds at low concentrations by spectrometric methods are well known. Physics has provided a strong theoretical background, and modern technologies allow the development of electro photonic analytical devices that aim to provide greater precision in the detection of compounds, even at low concentrations. This original article provides a new experimental and theoretical insight into chemistry. Method: This paper describes the theory and the technical aspects of the electro photonic analysis method. This technology is tested on samples of tap water droplets compared to hydro-alcoholic solutions (ethanol 62% m/m). Results: Using repeated measurements on the same tap water and ethanolic solutions, we demonstrate the reproducibility of the method. This method can now be systematically double-blind tested on a variety of samples.
The present manuscript aims to present several ideas and reflections about ethical issues in chemistry communication, which represent a deepening and updating of an oral presentation at the Symposium of EUCHEMS working party “Ethics in Chemistry”, held in Rome the 6th-7th July 2017. These concepts could be useful for the community of chemists to face future challenges concerning the relationship between Chemistry and Society. Some basic features of modern science, communication and communication of science are presented, since they represent an important framework to build a discourse about ethics in chemistry communication. The specificity of chemistry, such as its features as inductive, creative, flexible, transversal and central science, need to be considered by chemists to be aware of ethical issues specific of chemistry. In the present paper I discuss some ethical issues related to the communication of chemists within the scientific community, such as scientific publishing and artificial intelligence uses, and some ethical concerns related to the communication to the general public and the effect on the society of unethical communication related to topics such as sustainability, food, health and environmental impact of chemical research. The manuscript end with some reflections about the need of ethics of chemistry in chemists’ training.
This study introduces a new framework for understanding medieval science by recognizing alchemy as a central mode of rational inquiry. Through the integration of theoretical reflection and material practice, alchemy shaped a vision of nature governed by intelligible processes and oriented toward perfection. The contribution of this work lies in its demonstration that medieval alchemical knowledge operated through experimental attention. Rather than isolating observation from metaphysical purpose, it forged a unified method where transformation became the pathway to understanding. By highlighting this coherence, the study redefines the historical foundations of chemistry and restores to alchemy its formative role in shaping scientific imagination.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a powerful, non-invasive imaging technique widely used in medical diagnostics. However, its inherent inability to differentiate between certain tissues can limit its diagnostic capabilities, especially when distinguishing between subtle tissue differences. To overcome these limitations, contrast agents are employed to enhance the images produced by MRI and improve the clarity and accuracy of the results. This review delves into the role, types, and advancements of paramagnetic contrast agents in MRI.
