Light-assisted hydrogen production is a crucial strategy to mitigate carbon emissions. By fabricating plasmonic bimetallic 2D supercrystals in an antenna–reactor configuration, Herran et al. have identified the central role of strongly confined electric fields in plasmon-assisted hydrogen generation.

See Herran et al.

Lithium–sulfur batteries are a promising alternative to other energy storage technologies such as Li-ion batteries due to their high theoretical capacity and light weight. However, they commonly suffer from low cyclability. Now, Guangmin Zhou and colleagues introduce a binary descriptor that captures both electronic and structural features to predict the activity of various cathode catalyst materials for Li–S batteries.

See Han et al.

Achieving high atomic dispersion of precious-metal catalytic species is a promising strategy in terms of sustainability and cost-effectiveness, but preserving a high catalytic performance is often challenging. Now, Bin Liu, Hong Bin Yang, Yujing Li, Yang-Gang Wang, Hua Bing Tao and colleagues show that adjacent iridium and phosphorus atomic pairs dispersed onto a N-doped carbon support exhibit high performance for the hydrogen oxidation reaction, while iridium single atoms on the same support but in the absence of P are effectively inactive.

See Wang et al.

Methanol is an important commodity chemical and could be in principle synthesized from methane. However, using this gas as the precursor remains challenging beyond lab-scale demonstrations. In their review, van Bokhoven and colleagues explore with critical eyes the most common approaches for the synthesis of methanol from methane, focusing on aspects deemed crucial to further develop such methods and achieve their successful large-scale implementation.

See van Bokhoven et al.

Metabolic inactivation of drugs is a frequent problem. Now, Xiaogang Qu and colleagues present a catalytic hydrogen-bonded organic framework which acts as a carrier for masked bioactive substances. Not only does it activate the prodrug in cancer cells, but it also simultaneously synthesizes an enzyme inhibitor to prevent the metabolic inactivation of the in situ-generated chemotherapy agent.

See Huang et al.

Stereocontrolled free-radical-mediated reactions are notoriously challenging. Now, Peng Liu, Yang Yang and colleagues report the directed evolution of cytochrome P450 enzymes for the asymmetric radical cyclization of α-haloesters to arenes. Complementary P450 radical cyclases are obtained allowing access to both enantiomeric products.

See Fu et al.

In their work, Miao Zhong and colleagues report a gold catalyst supported on a Ce0.95 Ru0.05O2 solid solution capable of promoting the efficient methanation of CO2 through a photothermal effect, bypassing the need for external heating.

See Jiang et al.

Methanol is an attractive non-conventional carbon source for microbial fermentation. However, while industrial microbial hosts have been shown to be able to use this carbon feedstock for biosynthesis, they usually still required sugar substrates for growth. Here, Jens Nielsen, Jay D. Keasling, Yun Chen, Zhonghu Bai and colleagues report the successful construction of a synthetic methylotrophic yeast which can grow in minimal medium with methanol as the sole carbon source.

See Zhan et al.

In their work, Damien Voiry and colleagues employ a CO2 supersaturation strategy to promote electrodeposition of a highly alloyed Cu–Ag catalyst and its subsequent selectivity towards 2-propanol in the electrocatalytic reduction of CO2.

See Qi et al.

Formate dehydrogenase is immobilized on a scanning tunnelling microscope tip to measure the kinetic turnover of its enzymatic reaction showing that the bound NADH directly converts to NAD+ via in situ hydride exchange.

See Zhang et al.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming increasingly important in many aspects of twenty-first century life. This Focus issue provides an overview of how machine learning can be applied to facilitate rapid advances in catalyst discovery. The cover image comes from a Review by Hongliang Xin and colleagues, which discusses strategies to utilize machine learning to bridge the complexity gap that currently exists between real and computed catalytic systems.

See Mou et al

Albicidin is an antibiotic exhibiting features that are sought-after in the fight against multidrug-resistant bacteria. Here, Jonathan G. Heddle, Roderich D. Süssmuth and Dmitry Ghilarov uncover the mechanism of action of this antibiotic inhibiting its target bacterial DNA gyrase, and present atomic-level details of the interaction via cryogenic electron microscopy studies.

See Michalczyk et al.