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Analytical Chemistry

Happy holidays

by Bibiana Campos Seijo
December 16, 2018 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 96, Issue 49

 

One of the best things about this time of year is the feeling of closure. As we complete another 365-day cycle, it’s an opportunity to look back and relive some of the experiences of the previous 12 months while readying for whatever the new year may bring.

In this last C&EN issue of the year, aptly titled Year in Chemistry 2018, we spend some time looking back at the year’s most stunning scientific discoveries. Turn to page 28 and enjoy. There’s something there for everyone. You can read about machine learning and whether it is living up to its hype (see page 30); how the world is at a crisis point in regard to plastic waste and what chemists are doing to improve recycling technology and to create novel, sustainable polymers (see page 31); and how new solar-cell materials and designs continue to push boundaries in performance (see page 34).

Also, don’t miss “Molecules of the Year” if you want to learn what compounds caught the headlines in 2018 and which one won the popularity contest we ran on social media (see page 40). I thought the molecular knot was spectacular, and a stereoisomer was another favorite, but neither of them made it to the top of our readers’ choice poll.

There is also a lot of fun in looking forward at what 2019 may bring. That’s what C&EN’s deputy editorial director, Lauren Wolf, and science news editor, Michael Torrice, did in “Predicting the Biggest Chemistry Advances of 2019,” a live webcast we aired earlier this month. Wolf and Torrice gathered a panel of experts who have their fingers on the pulse of the biggest innovations happening in chemistry: Marshall Brennan, publishing manager at ChemRxiv; Claire Hansell, a senior editor at Nature; and Jake Yeston, the physical sciences research editor at Science.

The panelists talked about their favorite chemical moments of 2018 and analyzed some of the biggest trends of the year. They then provided their picks for 2019’s likely breakthroughs. My money is on Hansell’s choice. I think automation of platforms, not just for synthesis but also for analysis, is going to be one of the main themes of 2019. Autonomous devices will soon proliferate in the lab.

During the webinar, Brennan provided what I thought was one of the best quotes of the year when he said that 2018 is the year when “the chocolate’s really getting into the peanut butter.” Find out what he meant by watching the webinar at cenm.ag/predict2019. For a shortcut, you can also find highlights of the event on page 44. Let us know what big trends you expect to see in 2019.

While we’re on the topic of looking forward, there’s something I’m eagerly anticipating about 2019: the celebration, as declared by the United Nations, of the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT). Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the proposal of the periodic table by Dmitri Mendeleev.

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It promises to be a year filled with celebrations all around the world, and here at C&EN we’re just about to kick ours off. Watch C&EN’s weekly newsletter and social channels for details on how to enter ourI Spy A Periodic Table photo contest. We hope you’ll submit your periodic table sightings throughout the world—in restaurants, science buildings, schools, and art museums—for your chance to be featured in a February issue of C&EN. Other C&EN IYPT activities throughout the year will include a poetry contest, commemorative essays by periodic table experts, special episodes of our Stereo Chemistry podcast, a live trivia event … you name it! Look for more in the Jan. 7 issue of C&EN.

In the meantime, enjoy the IYPT-themed poster that you’ll find within this issue, brought to you by C&EN BrandLab and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Have a lovely holiday break, and best wishes for 2019.

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