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This Faraday Discussion was held on March 25–27th, 2019 at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, UK and was attended by 160 delegates from over 20 countries. The attendees represented the cross-disciplinary nature of the field, with biologists, engineers, material scientists, theoreticians and experimental chemists of all experience levels coming together to discuss the state of the art. The meeting captured how rapidly the field of artificial photosynthesis has progressed in a short time and highlighted how far we still have to go. In this conference report, the topics of discussion will be outlined with a brief description of the papers presented and a summary of the conference events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching practical laboratory skills is a key component of preparing undergraduate students for future careers in chemistry and elsewhere. In this paper, we present our new strategy to teach practical skills to undergraduate chemistry students. We report a Skills Inventory, a list of the suggested practical skills a graduate chemist should possess; this list was compiled by chemists across the UK. In our new practical course we begin by decoupling the practical skill from the theoretical background, compelling students to first master the basic processes needed to carry out a specific technique. In what we have termed a 'spiral curriculum' approach, skills are revisited on multiple occasions, with increasing complexity and greater emphasis on underlying theory. The new course makes links across traditional subdisciplines of chemistry to avoid compartmentalisation of ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raphael Meldola FRS (1849-1915) was professor of chemistry at the City and Guilds Technical College in Finsbury. He was a colleague and close friend of Silvanus Phillips Thompson FRS (1851-1916), the college principal and professor of physics. This paper follows an earlier one on Thompson and the making of his career. It is intended to illustrate further the ways in which scientists of Meldola and Thompson's generation gained advancement within the scientific community. Meldola had interests beyond chemistry, including a serious interest in field entomology. In this he had several well-known mentors including Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin. The paper, which includes much new information derived from archival work, is presented as six thematic narratives related, among other things, to chemical and technical education, dye chemistry, the Royal Society solar eclipse expedition of 1875, natural history and Darwinism, field clubs, learned societies, and the honouring of scientists. Together these narratives illustrate a generalist/voluntarist career pattern that came to an end with the First World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how gluten was discussed by chemists in the nineteenth century in Great Britain and France as a proxy for both nutritive and baking quality. It examines the role of gluten in the broader quest to measure and render the quality of wheat and flour through a set of objective and quantifiable criteria. The paper also shows how measuring quality proved to be an extremely complex task, and how chemistry was, by itself, unable to reduce the complexity of the wheat grain, and the various demands made upon it, to a simple numerical indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study of the scientific output of British University chemists. The relationships between three different aspects of scientists' work (quantity, quality and industrial orientation) were examined, and whilst quantity and quality were highly correlated, industrial orientation appeared to represent a different dimension of research performance. Quality of output was the best Predictor of the recognition received by a chemist from the scientific community (in terms of medals, appointment to advisory committees, etc), his industrial involvement much the least good. It appears that a minority of British university chemists are oriented towards the industrial, rather than the basic research community in terms of their contributions and of their rewards. The influence of institutional affiliation upon recognition, for a given level of output, was examined. As in studies of American scientists, but in contrast to earlier work on British ones, institutional affiliation did appear to influence the recognition received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sir Thomas Edward Thorpe (1845-1925) was one of the most prominent chemists of the second half of the 19th century. He studied phosphorus oxides and fluorine compounds. He is known for his works on the determination of the atomic weights of chemical elements and for his books on chemistry and the history of chemistry. The purpose of this paper is to familiarize readers with the important events in the life of Thorpe and his writing and research activities, in particular some of his experimental results, as well as his selected publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part II. Continues a paper on how Great Britain's Apothecaries Act of 1815 shaped the dental profession. Reversal of fortune between chemists who practiced dentistry, and the pure dentists, following the Act; Influence of the Act on the social position, education and qualification of dentists.

Professor Bamford was regarded by many as the greatest British polymer chemist of the twentieth century and when Bam passed away in November 1999 tribute was quite rightly made to his considerable achievements in the field of polymer science. The aim of this paper is to highlight Bam's contribution to biomaterials research that occupied his attention for over 15 years after his official retirement. In particular a review of the synthetic methods employed by Bam for the modification of polymers to improve haemocompatibility and to function as affinity separation membranes for protein purification is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thomas Edward Thorpe (1845-1925) was one of the most prominent chemists of the second half of the 19th century. He studied phosphorus oxides and fluorine compounds. He is known for his works on the determination of the atomic weights of chemical elements and for his books on chemistry and the history of chemistry. The purpose of this paper is to familiarize readers with the important events in the life of Thorpe and his writing and research activities, in particular some of his experimental results, as well as his selected publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on evidence from a range of sources to consider the extent to which World War II served as a turning point in the employment opportunities open to women chemists in Britain. It argues that wartime conditions expanded women's access to some areas of employment, but that these opportunities represented, in many ways, an expansion of existing openings rather than wholly new ones, and not all of them proved permanent. Instead, women chemists benefited more permanently from increased state expenditure on higher education and on research and development after the war. This enabled some women to remain in what had originally been temporary wartime posts and others to secure employment in wholly new positions. Women were most successful in securing positions created by the expansion of state welfare and support for agriculture, but also found new employment opportunities as a result of the heavy investment in weapons development that accelerated with the advent of the Cold War. In higher education, an initial expansion of openings was not sustained, and the proportion of women in university chemistry departments actually fell during the second half of the 1950s. Industry presents a rather ambiguous picture, with many firms continuing to refuse to employ women chemists, whereas elsewhere they enjoyed enhanced opportunities and better salaries than those offered before the war. This did not mean, however, that women chemists received equal treatment to their male colleagues, and, despite the changes, they remained concentrated in subordinate positions and were expected to concentrate on routine work. Prospects in the 1950s were certainly better than they had been during the 1930s, but they remained strongly gendered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the extent of overseas migration by British chemists over the period 1887-1971. Notwithstanding the 'brain drain' alarms of the 1960s, overseas employment was characteristic of some 19% of British chemists' careers throughout our period, though its nature changed considerably. Our study examines the overseas employment histories of four cohorts of members of the [Royal] Institute of Chemistry in the 'Chemists' Database' at the Open University. Those employed abroad were not only highly qualified but also both geographically mobile and occupationally versatile. Over the period, the pattern of chemists' migration was broadly similar to that of British migration trends more generally. Except in the interwar years, chemists' rate of migration was relatively constant. However, the length of time they spent abroad declined markedly over the period: long-term migration became less characteristic than short-term overseas employment for purposes of career development. From the late nineteenth century, British chemists staffed the Empire, but also found employment in the expanding US economy. After 1945, chemists' destinations shifted more markedly towards North America, including Canada, and later also to Europe. Our work thus provides a new perspective on the dynamics of scientists' migration and contributes to studies on the brain drain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Since the Great War began’, Professor David Orme Masson told a Melbourne audience in September 1915, ‘two statements have been made, and so frequently repeated that today they are commonplace. The first is that the result … depends on … men and more men, munitions and yet more munitions. The second is that this is a war of chemists and engineers—a war of applied science’. To Britain's assistance in this war of invention and applied science came more than 120 Australian scientists, whose particular technical skills were urgently needed by the expanding munitions industries. However, their contribution to the Imperial cause and to Allied victory has been overshadowed by the heroism of ANZAC troops in Gallipoli and in France. This paper begins the task of assessing the importance of their work for Britain, and the significance of their wartime experiences for post-war Australia, as viewed through the lives of the men and their organizing genius, A. E. Leighton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the central debates among British chemists during the 1830s concerned the use of symbols to represent elements and compounds. Chemists such as Edward Turner, who desired to use symbolic notation mainly for practical reasons, eventually succeeded in fending off metaphysical objections to their approach. These objections were voiced both by the philosopher William Whewell, who wished to subordinate the chemists' practical aims to the rigid standard of algebra, and by John Dalton, whose hidebound opposition to abbreviated notation symbolized the suspicion with which older British chemists perceived continental innovations. It is argued that the success of chemists like Turner in this debate reflects their larger success in the 1830s in achieving disciplinary autonomy and in beginning to align themselves more closely with prevailing chemical practice across the Channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Britain's mid-nineteenth-century healthcare economy has often been described as a "medical marketplace" in which struggling doctors faced intense competition from a range of unqualified rivals. Chemists and druggists, who proliferated in industrial cities and supposedly prospered by exploiting the poor and the gullible, are widely regarded as having presented a serious threat to medical livelihoods. However, the activities of four Gloucester chemists show how the dispensing of medical prescriptions brought individual chemists and doctors closer together. Competition between chemists and druggists for this trade was intense and it was instrumental in establishing them as trusted community pharmacists and giving impetus to the process of professionalization. Prescription books, an under-represented source in the literature, also show that customers for prescription medicines were surprisingly socially diverse and that most prescriptions were collected by women, with significant variation in dispensing activity through the week. This, and the volume of prescriptions being dispensed, suggest prescription medicines were regularly being used to treat chronic and less serious ailments, where collection could await normal shopping days. Significantly, prescriptions were the property of the patients and could be re-presented whenever they thought fit. For some patients, it thus effectively became an instrument of self-medication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 1970s, the embryonic UK research community in molecular simulation – physicists and physical chemists – organised itself around CCP5, one of a set of Collaborative Computational Projects in different fields. CCP5 acted to develop and use the software required by an evolving and expanding scientific agenda, to exploit quickly and efficiently the revolution in computing hardware and to educate and nurture the careers of future generations of researchers in the field. This collaboration formally began in 1980, and is still fully active now, 40 years later. Today, molecular simulation techniques, many of them pioneered by CCP5, are now used very widely, including in several other CCPs in the UK's current family of Collaborative Computational Projects. This article tells the story of molecular simulation in the UK, with CCP5 itself at centre stage, using the written records in the CCP archives. The authors were, or are, all personally involved in this story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs related to the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) in Great Britain as of October 2015. Topics include the increase of chemists employed in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), contract research organisations and charities, an interview with SCI member Jason Camp, a speaker at the SCI Annual Review Meeting, and an agrisciences competition on social network Twitter and the Agrisciences Young Researchers 2015 event of the SCI Agrisciences Group.

Contrary to previous views of an acute shortage of chemists at the beginning of the twentieth century, this study found that the number of chemists identifiable by name in the Manchester area was substantial, even in 1902. Moreover, the majority were qualified to some extent. The total number of chemists and their degree of formal qualification increased rapidly during the period 1902-36. Employment data demonstrate that they worked not only in the chemical industry, but in a wide range of manufacturing industry and commerce. Only a relatively small proportion was employed in education. Research chemists were active in the area in the late nineteenth century: by 1936, 28% of Manchester chemists recorded their job title as research chemist or research manager. If Manchester were typical of Britain as a whole the number of chemists employed in 1902 would greatly exceed previous estimates. More speculatively, the number of chemists in Britain in 1902 may even have been comparable to that in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the developments related to the methods used in dating fossils and artefacts that took place in Great Britain in the 20th century. In the 20th century, palaeoanthropology and prehistoric archaeology required to devise methods to establish accurate chronology for human prehistory. During the last half of the 20th century, revolutionary developments were made in radiocarbon and potassium argon dating methods. It mentions about the progress made in the use of fluorine dating method, devised by scientists Emile Rivière and Adolphe Carnot in the 1890s and later improved by scientist Kenneth Oakley in 1940s. Also discussed are problems and issues related to the inability of palaeoanthropologists and chemists in successful implementation of the method.

The field of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in the analysis of chemical warfare agents (CWAs), specifically those involving the organophosphorus-based nerve agents (OPNAs), is a continually evolving and dynamic area of research. The ever-present interest in this field within analytical chemistry is driven by the constant threat posed by these lethal CWAs, highlighted by their use during the Tokyo subway attack in 1995, their deliberate use on civilians in Syria in 2013, and their use in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Great Britain in 2018 and Alexei Navalny in 2020. These events coupled with their potential for mass destruction only serve to stress the importance of developing methods for their rapid and unambiguous detection. Although the direct detection of OPNAs is possible by GC-MS, in most instances, the analytical chemist must rely on the detection of the products arising from their degradation. To this end, derivatization reactions mainly in the form of silylations and alkylations employing a vast array of reagents have played a pivotal role in the efficient detection of these products that can be used retrospectively to identify the original OPNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines references to apothecaries and their lodgers in the Royal Society of Medicine and in provincial guilds. The shops of apothecaries became a popular spot for scientific experiments during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. During this period apothecaries encroached upon medicine in England and Wales. In Scotland, they are closely associated with surgeons.

Investigates the current use of automated chemical information systems by academic chemists in the United Kingdom, specifically the use of advanced information systems which we refer to as leading-edge systems rather than online bibliographic databases. Types of information systems used; Computer literacy of chemists.

Investigates the impact of war on civilian chemists in Great Britain. Mobilization of chemists; Transformations in the chemical industry; Changes in academic-government relations in research.

Studies the structural location of industrial chemists in Great Britain during 1850-1921. History of growth and development of industrial chemistry as an occupation; Contributing factors; Formation of organizations during the twentieth century.