What we all like about chemistry, one heck of a named reaction and a coffee surprise.

When Chemjobber wrote a blogpost titled My Favorite Things about Chemistry (http://go.nature.com/CoPZaN), he probably didnt realize that the meme would infect so many people. Less than a week later, we had a good idea of the chemical blogosphere's favourite things. They included working chromatography columns, the smell of favourite solvents (THF, ethyl acetate, ether...), the thermite reaction and molecular models. Lots of people like crystals — big crystals, pentacene crystals, pretty crystal structures. So many people got involved that we can't mention them all here, but Azmanam has compiled a list at the end of his blog post (http://go.nature.com/YWGIZa).

Carmen Drahl wrote a great piece for C&EN (88, 3133; 2010) about how named reactions get their names, addressing the controversy that sometimes surrounds the problem. One example discussed was the Mizoroki–Heck reaction (a carbon–carbon bond formation using a Pd catalyst). In a blog post (http://go.nature.com/iklede) on CENtral Sciences Newscripts, she revealed the difficulties she'd had in tracking down Richard Heck. He retired to the Philippines in 1989, but eventually — with some help from Heck's former colleagues and Tagalog speaker in the C&EN offices — Drahl got through. Unfortunately, Tsutomu Mizoroki died fairly soon after his work on the reaction, in 1980, and even finding a photo of him proved difficult. With more former colleagues and a chemical historian on the case, a photo came through in the end.

And finally: a pinch of salt for your coffee, sir? Thats the titular question posed by Martin Lersch on his Khymos molecular gastronomy blog (http://go.nature.com/XKbJPI). Lersch, with a PhD in organometallic chemistry, asks the question because in some parts of the world this is fairly common practice. He explains that sodium ions interfere with the mechanism for tasting bitter flavours, so adding salt can make some bitter things sweeter.