Inert materials & the Mary Celeste | The chemical breakdown podcast

Marianna Kneppers· Host0:00

[intro music] A new study has found that certain experimental results were actually caused by interactions with materials assumed to be inert participants in the reaction. How do we avoid the effects of these accidental reagents? And scientists may have found the answer behind what happened to the crew of the infamous ship, the Mary Celeste. We explain how chemistry may fill the gaps in this story. I'm Marianna Kneppers, Chemistry World's science media producer, and this is the Chemical Breakdown. We'll be diving deeper into these stories shortly, but first, let's take a look at this week's news from the Chemistry World website. [gentle music] Hungarian academics are cautiously optimistic that Sunday's landslide defeat of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán could bring better times for the country's researchers. For 16 years, academic freedom in Hungary has suffered, with most researchers locked out of the EU's Horizon Europe research program and Erasmus student exchanges. A new report has found that China now discovers more than 40% of new chemicals and reactions reported in scientific literature, with the country's contributions growing exponentially in recent decades. The report attributes this to China's investment in its chemical sector, which has enabled the country to overtake the US as the dominant leader in chemical discovery.