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The Chemical Weapons Convention has a unique Scientific Advisory Board that ensures it keeps pace with science, and its implementing body is prepared for future challenges. It is a model that could be usefully applied to other disarmament treaties.

To write this article, Jennifer Rudd asked managers and vice-presidents working in carbon capture and carbon dioxide removal to share their insights on how to develop and deploy the technologies at scale.

The culture of scientific workplaces can cause neurodiverse scientists to face challenges. However, employing inclusive strategies and practical adjustments to the laboratory and the wider environment can help these differently skilled and equally valuable scientists thrive.

For blind and low vision chemists to participate independently in the chemistry laboratory we must employ principles of universal design and embrace new technologies mirroring those available outside the lab. By designing a first-year chemistry course that provides non-visual access, we are taking the first step to empower more blind and low vision people to be successful in chemistry careers.

The participation of people with disabilities in higher education in STEM fields in Japan is significantly lower than the proportion of the general population. Here, I discuss our work building an inclusive laboratory, university initiatives to improve accessibility and explain the need for additional support for researchers with disabilities.

Why was the relationship between Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins so fraught? A great deal has been written on the contributions of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins to determining the double helix structure of DNA. I attempt here to shed some light not on this issue but on their relationship, with the help of university and college records.

Restructuring the way you run and manage your lab can be a daunting task, but doing so is imperative for creating a research environment in which d/Deaf students and other diverse learners can work and thrive.

To combat worsening environmental crises, chemistry needs a redesign. We see the need for a triple focus on efficiency, safety and circularity as a prerequisite for chemistry to serve sustainability and ensure that essential chemical products and processes are waste-free, functional and safe for both humans and the environment.

Reimagining the training of the next generation of chemists in the era of digital chemistry, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence.

Large language models such as GPT-4 have been approaching human-level ability across many expert domains. GPT-4 can accomplish complex tasks in chemistry purely from English instructions, which may transform the future of chemistry.

Getting the next generation to participate in chemistry will require dismantling normative approaches to education and mentoring. Inclusive pedagogy that incorporates social issues and innovative teaching with special attention to historically excluded groups are keys to unlocking the full potential of future scientists.

Owing to the diminishing returns of deep learning and the focus on model accuracy, machine learning for chemistry might become an endeavour exclusive to well-funded institutions and industry. Extending the focus to model efficiency and interpretability will make machine learning for chemistry more inclusive and drive methodological progress.

To write this article, Emily Draper and Jennifer Leigh from the International Women in Supramolecular Chemistry (WISC) network again joined forces with David Smith and asked dads working within the field of supramolecular chemistry to share experiences around parental leave.

Two Schmidt Science Fellows describe their academic and career failures as they pursued their PhDs. Suggestions are included for how advisors, departments, and institutions can support students to open up about failure, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds.

To write this article, we spoke to members of the supramolecular chemistry community, including the International Women in Supramolecular Chemistry network. We are not attributing anyone’s name to their story to protect their anonymity.

#MentorFirst (mentorfirst.org) is an initiative aimed at dispelling negative practices all-too-often still seen in academia, promoting best mentoring practices, and building a community of proactive mentors.

Our remodelled research agenda suggests setting priorities that outline a clear framework for making decisions on current and future research activities. We propose collaborative and collective global approaches to maximize our joint efforts, especially among early career researchers (ECRs), to remodel research agendas for the ultimate benefit of humanity.

A student-designed, student–faculty partnership was piloted to increase representation from diverse voices in the faculty hiring process while also rebuilding trust between faculty and students.

Numerous studies show that gender-based bias affects the distribution of research funding, with researcher-focused assessments being particularly prone to bias. Considering the negative impact on science when bias intrudes on funding decisions, granting agencies need to improve their efforts to document, monitor and reduce it.

Virtually all prospective medical students are required to take courses in general and organic chemistry, but are they really necessary? We discuss the relevance of chemistry to modern medicine and the arguments for and against its use as an essential prerequisite.