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Nature 426, 776-777 (18 December 2003) | doi:10.1038/426776a

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Organic chemistry: Aromatics do the twist

David M. Lemal1

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For nearly 40 years, organic chemists have been fascinated by the idea of aromatic molecules that have the topology of a Möbius strip. No such molecule has been isolated — until now.

The first example of a Möbius aromatic molecule to be synthesized and isolated is described by Ajami et al.1 on page 819 of this issue. Although topologies resembling a Möbius strip (Fig. 1

  1. David M. Lemal is in the Department of Chemistry, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA.
    Email: david.m.lemal@dartmouth.edu