Health accountability
Public health policy can differ dramatically between countries, as we saw during the Covid-19 pandemic before the vaccines saved the day. Australia and New Zealand went for a vision zero approach trying to avoid all infections; several Asian countries (pre-warned as they narrowly escaped a SARS pandemic in 2002/03) also took drastic measures to keep infections down.
Phosphorus in focus
Six elements are crucial for the existence of all life on our planet, namely carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. Of these six, phosphorus is by far the most limited in its general availability.
Using cover crops to support tea quality and battle pests
Tea is a key part of many people’s day – and a vital cash crop for many economies. But farmers have also been dealing with the effects of monoculture cropping, the challenges of resurgent pests and the use of chemical inputs. As a result, there has been increased interest in the use of cover crops to help deal with some of these issues.
Business digest: Chemistry industry updates
The latest business digest for C&I Issue 4 2026 with all the latest mergers and acquisitions in the chemical industry.
Gas safety in laboratory environments
The use of gases is both fundamental and commonplace within laboratory environments, integral to essential sterilisation or decontamination procedures, for example, and also across a broad range of industries. The use of gases can pose significant hazards to the health of employees, and sometimes to the safety of the facility as a whole.
Comment: Patenting battery materials
It is possible to look at general trends for patent publications in a particular area, such as battery materials, to find changes in research focus and direction. But this ‘helicopter view’ can miss some of the interesting detail we see by looking more closely at particular patent applications.
EU briefs - news from the chemistry industry in Europe
Read the news in brief from the EU from C&I Magazine Issue 4 2026.
Comment: Insulating Europe
Around 210m m3 of insulating materials are currently used in the European construction industry every year. Over the past two years, there has been an overall decline in demand for insulation materials in Europe, including Russia and Turkey.
How nanoparticle patterns are being used to stop counterfeiters
A Danish research group has invented a legally binding fingerprint for individual consumer items that is based on random nanoparticle patterns.
Exploring the use of waste rapeseed oil as fuel for compression ignition engines
Researchers in Poland have looked at the potential for blending waste rapeseed oil (WRO) with Jet Propellant-8 (JP-8) as a fuel for compression ignition engines, by looking at the performance of different blends of the two under various engine operating conditions.