Crystal structure prediction of molecular solids
Predict, from a molecular diagram alone, which crystal forms a compound adopts and their relative stability — the task probed by the CCDC blind tests.
Each problem states how progress is verified and what counts as a contribution. Besides the problems curated here, the catalogue includes open conjectures from Formal Conjectures (with Lean statements), optimization constants and the AlphaEvolve problems. Know one that belongs here? Propose a problem.
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Predict, from a molecular diagram alone, which crystal forms a compound adopts and their relative stability — the task probed by the CCDC blind tests.
Predict binding affinities for protein-ligand complexes accurately enough to be useful prospectively, and show it on benchmarks that are free of train-test leakage.
Predict and control which product a CO2-reduction catalyst makes — especially C2+ products such as ethylene and ethanol — from computable descriptors rather than trial and error.
Find a particulate photocatalyst that splits water with high quantum efficiency under visible light, closing the gap between near-perfect UV performance and the low solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of real panels.
Construct an exchange-correlation approximation that reaches chemical accuracy (~1 kcal/mol) across broad main-group chemistry at semi-local cost, and show it on public benchmarks.
Find a catalyst and cell design that reduce N2 to ammonia electrochemically at ambient conditions with verified, contamination-free rates — and separate real signals from false positives.
Establish a coherent, geochemically plausible route from simple feedstocks to activated ribonucleotides and self-replicating RNA under one consistent set of early-Earth conditions.