Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
News and Views
Nature 443, 40-41 (7 September 2006) | doi:10.1038/443040b; Published online 6 September 2006
Open Innovation Challenges
-
Single-cell Analysis Platform
This Challenge is looking for novel approaches to analyzing changes at a single-cell level. This is...
-
Methods of Modeling Adaptation in Populations
The analysis of adaptation with a population is a frequently encountered computational modeling scen...
- More Challenges
- Powered by:
nature jobs
Assistant Professor of Medicine
- Massachusetts General Hospital
- Boston, MA
Chemical Process Engineer
- Praj Matrix - Praj Industries Ltd
- Pune, Maharashtra Pune-411021 India
Organic chemistry: Catalysts break symmetry
Scott E. Denmark1
Abstract
The creation of asymmetric molecules from symmetrical precursors is a useful strategy for organic synthesis. A new catalyst can accomplish this task through a unique, symmetry-breaking reaction.
Chirality, the 'left-handed' or 'right-handed' property of objects that are mirror images of each other, is ubiquitous in the observable world — shoes, conch shells, wood screws and umbilical cords, for instance. This property extends to objects in the nanoscale dimension; nearly all molecules in nature (such as amino acids, sugars, alkaloids and terpenes) and legions of synthetic compounds are chiral.
- Scott E. Denmark is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois, 600 S. Mathews Avenue, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Email: denmark@scs.uiuc.edu
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
RESEARCH
Enantioselective silyl protection of alcohols catalysed by an amino-acid-based small moleculeNature Letters to Editor (07 Sep 2006)
