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Fusicoccane diterpenoids are complex natural products with intricate tricyclic skeletons and intriguing biological activities. Now a chemoenzymatic strategy has been developed for modularly synthesizing a number of compounds from the family. This approach combines de novo skeletal construction and hybrid C–H oxidations, allowing the synthesis of ten different natural products.

The number of known high-oxidation-state transuranic compounds remains limited, and these typically feature high coordination numbers and/or multiply-bonded donor atoms. Now, a tetrahedral, pentavalent neptunium complex supported by four monoanionic ligands has been isolated and characterized. This complex is stable in the solid state and undergoes a proton-coupled electron transfer reaction in solution.

Evolution separates complex modern enzymes from their hypothetical simpler early ancestors, which raises the question of how unevolved sequences can develop new functions. Here a library of non-natural protein sequences was subjected to ultrahigh-throughput screens in microfluidic droplets, leading to the isolation of a phosphodiesterase enzyme capable of hydrolysing the biological second messenger, cyclic AMP.

Two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (2D COFs) enable the construction of bespoke functional materials, but designing dynamic 2D COFs is challenging. Now it has been shown that perylene-diimide-based COFs can open and close their pores upon uptake or removal of guests, while fully retaining their crystalline long-range order. Moreover, the variable COF geometry enables stimuli-responsive optoelectronic properties.

A robust organometallic platform is developed for stoichiometric cross-couplings of common aryl and alkyl electrophiles under a single set of conditions. Inexpensive and persistent organonickel complexes are prepared by electrolysis and implemented in the diversification of drug-like molecules with high reliability from a diverse set of alkyl precursors.

X-ray diffraction analysis typically affords the static 3D structures of given compounds or materials, but to understand chemical processes, the visualization of fast structural changes is desirable. Time-resolved femtosecond crystallography has now been used to monitor the structural dynamics of a photoactive metal–organic framework.

The precision synthesis of cyclic polymers with ultrahigh molar mass (UHMM) and circularity is challenging. Now, a method that involves superbase-mediated living linear-chain growth followed by macromolecular cyclization triggered by protic quenching enables the on-demand production of UHMM cyclic polymers with a narrow dispersity and closed-loop chemical recyclability.

Excited by the prospect of future missions to the Jupiter system, Bruce Gibb explores the chemistry of Jupiter’s moons and wonders whether there could be life on Europa.

Overcrowded alkene-derived molecular motors convert light and heat into chirality-directed unidirectional rotary motion, but the efficiency of their photochemical isomerization remains limited. Now formylation of the motor core has been shown to boost all aspects of motor photochemistry by improving photochemical efficiency, diminishing competing processes and redshifting absorption.

The construction of analogues of natural gap junctions would provide a bottom–up strategy for building intercellular communication pathways for synthetic cells. Now artificial intercellular gap junctions have been prepared from unimolecular tubular channels by mimicking the hydrophobic–hydrophilic–hydrophobic triblock structure of natural junction channels.

Advances in the development of cytoskeletal-like materials with modular structures and mechanics are pivotal for the engineering of synthetic cells. Now actin-mimetic supramolecular peptide networks have been designed using programmable peptide–DNA crosslinkers, giving rise to tunable tactoid-shaped bundles and mechanical properties that control spatial localization, the diffusion of payloads and shape changes within artificial cells.

Knots reduce the tensile strength of macroscopic threads and fibres. Now it has been shown that the presence of a well-defined overhand knot in a polymer chain can substantially increase the rate of scission of the polymer under tension, as deformation of the polymer backbone induced by the tightening knot activates otherwise unreactive covalent bonds.

The selective synthesis of ultrahigh-molar-mass (UHMM) cyclic polymers from direct polymerization is elusive. Using a chemically recyclable polythioester as a model, it has now been shown that a common superbase mediates living linear-chain growth, followed by proton-triggered linear-to-cyclic topological transformation, producing UHMM cyclic polymers with a narrow dispersity.

Chlorine-containing waste streams pose potential risks to human health and the environment, so their remediation represents a significant challenge. Now, chlorinated wastes have been successfully repurposed as chlorinating reagents for use in the preparation of organic chemicals and pharmaceutical ingredients.

Understanding the ways by which metal-containing catalysts carry out a reaction is a chemical puzzle. Now, investigations of a multi-metallic molecular system uncover how the self-assembly of molecular catalysts facilitates cooperation between active species and improves the conversion of water to hydrogen gas.

Although metal-free catalysts, featuring defined active sites, represent alternatives to scarce or problematic metals, metal-free compounds rarely show activities as promising as metal-based materials. Now deprotonated 2-thiolimidazole is shown to serve as a metal-free electrocatalyst for selective acetylene hydrogenation and achieves competitive performances with metal-based catalysts.

Natural protein folding takes place in aqueous cell environments. Now, it has been found that proteins in a water-free environment undergo faster and more efficient folding.

Phenols and their derivatives are ubiquitous in nature and important within the chemical industry. Their properties are linked to their substitution patterns, but meta-isomers are underrepresented due to the difficulty of their synthesis. Now we address this challenge by describing a 1,2-transposition of phenols that enables a formal para- to meta-isomerization.

Enantioconvergent reactions convert both enantiomers of a racemic starting material into a single enantioenriched product. All currently known enantioconvergent processes necessitate the loss or partial loss of the racemic substrate’s stereochemical information. Now, an alternative approach has been developed that proceeds with full retention of the racemic substrate’s configuration.

Despite their intriguing photochemical activities, natural photoenzymes have not yet been repurposed for new-to-nature activities. Now, by leveraging the strongly oxidizing excited-state flavoquinone cofactor, fatty acid photodecarboxylases were engineered to catalyse unnatural decarboxylative radical cyclization with excellent chemo-, enantio- and diastereoselectivities.