C&EN Monthly - May 2024

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Here are some of the top articles from cen.acs.org that have been creating a reaction:

Introducing the Talented 12 Class for 2024. These early-career scientists are taking on big global chemistry challenges like nuclear fuel storage, battery electrolytes, nucleic acid function, and microplastics in the human body.

Know an outstanding early-career chemist? Nominate them for the Talented 12 Class of 2025.

C&EN’s top 50 US chemical producers for 2024. The global economy is facing significant challenges, with Europe near recession, the US grappling with high inflation and a weak housing market, and China slowly recovering from COVID-19 lockdowns. The chemical industry is particularly affected, experiencing a 14.5% decline in sales among the top 50 US chemical firms in 2023, with operating profits dropping by 43.2%. Despite this, some companies in recession-resistant sectors managed to perform well, and overall, the industry remains hopeful with increased capital spending.

View our top US chemical producers for 2024 and explore our interactive charts of the US Top 50 going back to 2004.

What instrumentation skills does industry want new chemists to have. Undergraduate chemists should learn how to use five key instruments to prepare for industry careers, a new study concludes.

10 years on, Flint still faces consequences from the water crisis. A decade ago, one of the worst human-caused environmental disasters in recent US history unfolded in the city of Flint, Michigan. Amid financial turmoil, the city switched its source of drinking water and thereby unleashed a crisis that exposed tens of thousands of residents to lead—a potent neurotoxin—and potentially carcinogenic compounds called trihalomethanes.

Gas stoves could be responsible for 19,000 premature deaths, study finds. A new study concludes that the NO? emitted from gas stoves could be responsible for 50,000 pediatric asthma cases and 19,000 premature deaths in the US.

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