Fire Razes Carbon-Neutral Lab In U.K.

A fire has completely destroyed a carbon-neutral laboratory for sustainable chemistry that had been under construction on the campus of England’s Nottingham University. The university says it has no idea what caused the fire, which occurred on the evening of Sept. 12. The $30 million, timber-framed building had been scheduled to open in 2015. Sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, it was to have been a new center for teaching and research for the university’s chemistry department with a focus on the development of low-carbon processes for making pharmaceuticals. The university plans to rebuild.