Communicating chemistry articles within Nature Chemistry

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  • Meeting Report |

    Organic chemists meet biennially to present exciting developments in the realm of synthesis. Thomas Barber discusses the standout themes of this year’s international synthesis in organic chemistry symposium.

    • Thomas Barber

  • News & Views |

    The application of machine learning to big data, to make quantitative predictions about reaction outcomes, has been fraught with failure. This is because so many chemical-reaction data are not fit for purpose, but predictions would be less error-prone if synthetic chemists changed their reaction design and reporting practices.

    • Jacqueline M. Cole

  • Comment |

    Chemistry plays a key role in tackling today’s challenges and ensuring a sustainable future. Since 2019, IUPAC has been identifying technologies with the potential to advance our society and improve our quality of life.

    • Fernando Gomollón-Bel
    •  & Javier García-Martínez

  • Meeting Report |

    The recent Empowering Women in Organic Chemistry meeting was its most dynamic yet. Shanina Sanders Johnson discusses how this meeting exhibited inclusivity and examined strategies such as mentoring and forming allies to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in organic chemistry.

    • Shanina Sanders Johnson

  • Thesis |

    Ellis McCarver and Michelle Francl want to turn up the volume of the voices of marginalized chemists.

    • Michelle Francl
    •  & Ellis McCarver

  • Thesis |

    Michelle Francl wonders what the future will think of her office.

    • Michelle Francl

  • Thesis |

    Michelle Francl wonders if scientists ought to pen poetry.

    • Michelle Francl

  • Thesis |

    Michelle Francl wonders if it is time to rethink the naming of units.

    • Michelle Francl

  • Thesis |

    There are plenty of online resources to ensure that learning can continue for students who cannot access universities during a pandemic, but what options are there for practical aspects of science courses? Daren J. Caruana, Christoph G. Salzmann and Andrea Sella offer a manifesto for home-based experiments.

    • Daren J. Caruana
    • , Christoph G. Salzmann
    •  & Andrea Sella

  • Meeting Report |

    Chemical systems can show complex behaviour that is not seen in individual molecules or reactions. Helena S. Azevedo, Sarah L. Perry, Peter A. Korevaar, and Dibyendu Das report on the emergence of this complex behaviour, which was discussed at the Virtual Symposium on Systems Chemistry

    • Helena S. Azevedo
    • , Sarah L. Perry
    •  & Dibyendu Das

  • News & Views |

    The direct conversion of lead compounds into potentially more potent derivatives, through selective functionalization, could help to speed up the discovery of drug candidates. Now, a method has been reported that enables the late-stage C–H methylation of complex drug-like molecules, using a sustainable cobalt-based catalyst.

    • Joanna Wencel-Delord

  • Comment |

    Chemistry is now starting to embrace preprints, with more and more researchers in chemical and materials sciences posting their manuscripts online prior to peer review. Preprints can speed up the dissemination of scientific results and lead to more informal exchanges between researchers, hopefully accelerating the pace of research as a whole.

    • François-Xavier Coudert

  • Meeting Report |

    The use of automation for chemical research and reaction discovery has seen significant advances in recent years, but there are still problems that need to be solved. Ella M. Gale and Derek J. Durand discuss limitations in the field and how researchers are working to address these issues.

    • Ella M. Gale
    •  & Derek J. Durand

  • Meeting Report |

    Synthetic organic chemistry is increasingly automated, data rich and intelligent. At the Automated Synthesis Forum, industry and academia showcased their recent progress towards this augmented future.

    • David M. Heard
    •  & Alastair J. J. Lennox

  • Thesis |

    Michelle Francl considers the long-lost art of the reprint card and the debate that once raged about its use and misuse.

    • Michelle Francl

  • Comment |

    Very few consumers are aware that chemistry and synthetic chemicals are indispensable in making everyday goods because the products that people buy — such as cell phones, cars and processed foods — are typically far removed from the raw chemicals used in their production.

    • Michael Siegrist
    •  & Angela Bearth

  • Thesis |

    M. Pilar Gil and Eli Zysman-Colman look back at the history of two periodic tables that date from the late nineteenth century.

    • M. Pilar Gil
    •  & Eli Zysman-Colman

  • Comment |

    Chemistry’s lack of visibility in relation to other disciplines, such as astronomy and life sciences, means it is in danger of becoming the forgotten science. How can chemists discuss their work with the public so that we retain our position as the central science for future generations?

    • Renée Webster
    •  & Margaret C. Hardy

  • Comment |

    Could it be boron or bohrium that is the most boring? You’ll need to read to the end to find out.

    • Rebecca E. Jelley
    •  & Allan G. Blackman

  • News & Views |

    Scientific progress often relies on applying published methodological advances to different problems. With the aim of improving both the uptake and reproducibility of chemical transformations, a new assessment tool has now been developed that provides a clear and easy-to-interpret overview of common factors that affect a synthetic method.

    • James J. Douglas

  • Meeting Report |

    The Women in Chemistry conference held on International Women’s Day was an opportunity to celebrate the varied careers of female chemists and showcase every step along the way. Suze Kundu emphasizes that successes, failures — and everything in between — are all intrinsically valuable.

    • Suze Kundu

  • Meeting Report |

    The contributions of women to the development of the periodic table have long been overlooked. Claire Murray relates how the recent ‘Setting their table’ conference set out to highlight their prominent role in element discovery and use.

    • Claire A. Murray

  • Meeting Report |

    Two recent back-to-back meetings conveyed a common set of ongoing challenges for the fields of organocatalysis, photoredox catalysis and photochemistry.

    • Craig P. Johnston

  • Comment |

    The periodic table is immensely powerful for rationalizing many different properties of the chemical elements, but would turning it on its head make some important aspects easier to understand and give everyone a new perspective on chemistry?

    • Martyn Poliakoff
    • , Alexis D. J. Makin
    •  & Ellen Poliakoff

  • Editorial |

    In our very first issue, eight scientists shared their visions for how they thought chemistry would develop and now, ten years on, we have asked another group of researchers to look to the future. We also take this opportunity to look back and reflect on a decade of Nature Chemistry.

  • Editorial |

    The launch of Nature Chemistry in 2009 prompted some criticism of journal proliferation, but 100 issues later this young offender has matured into an accepted part of the publishing landscape.

  • Thesis |

    Michael Donnay and Michelle Francl want chemists to share the stories behind the work they do, and not be afraid to identify the heroines and heroes — and their epic adventures — that paved the way.

    • Michelle Francl
    •  & Michael Donnay

  • Thesis |

    A trio of recent discoveries in physics should be celebrated by everyone, even chemists, argues Bruce Gibb.

    • Bruce C. Gibb

  • Commentary |

    Of all the things humans can bestow names upon, new chemical elements are about the rarest. Our group of periodic table experts attempts to read the tea leaves and predict the names for elements 113, 115, 117 and 118.

    • Shawn C. Burdette
    • , Philip Ball
    •  & Brett F. Thornton

  • Thesis |

    Michelle Francl explores the concepts that could help non-chemists see the world more like those trained in the subject.

    • Michelle Francl

  • Thesis |

    Bruce C. Gibb is organizing a workshop for two groups of scientists that study a similar topic, but rarely get together. The different perspectives they bring and the unusual set up of the meeting will hopefully lead to new ideas, but, as he suggests, they will also lead to the attendees leaving their comfort zones.

    • Bruce C. Gibb

  • Thesis |

    Michelle Francl suggests that chemists should relax and not fret over ambiguous language.

    • Michelle Francl

  • Thesis |

    Michelle Francl suggests that students should be trained to write in a fashion similar to how they are taught the principles and practice of NMR spectroscopy — by providing them with a limited set of patterns and parameters.

    • Michelle Francl

  • Books & Arts |

    • Michael A. Tarselli

  • Editorial |

    As Nature Chemistry celebrates its fifth birthday, we take a look at some of the facts and figures that underpin the story of the journal so far.

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