In the third of a trilogy of essays on types of intelligence, Bruce Gibb mines the thoughts of some of his peers on what personal qualities help chemists achieve success in the lab.

Fires are relatively common yet underreported occurrences in chemical laboratories, but their consequences can be devastating. Here we describe our first-hand experience of a savage laboratory fire, highlighting the detrimental effects that it had on the research group and the lessons learned.

Critical race theory — an academic framework that serves to understand systemic racism in the USA and beyond — can help inform endeavours to advance justice and equity in the chemistry community.

Critical realism distinguishes the ‘real’ world from the ‘observable’ one, which scientists explore as actors rather than as passive, neutral observers. Through this lens, it is clear that a diverse community that interrogates the world from different angles is an asset to the practice of chemistry itself.

Polymethine dyes are bright and red-shifted fluorophores that lack an intrinsic turn-on mechanism, which leads to non-specific staining when applied to biological samples. Now the fluorescence of polymethine dyes was masked through an intracellular cyclization strategy that gets reversed upon binding an intended macromolecular target, providing specificity for live-cell imaging.

Late-stage functionalization of complex drug molecules is challenging. To address this problem, a discovery platform based on geometric deep learning and high-throughput experimentation was developed. The computational model predicts binary reaction outcome, reaction yield and regioselectivity with low error margins, enabling the functionalization of complex molecules without de novo synthesis.

Long polyynes have fascinating properties but they are difficult to synthesize as a consequence of their high reactivity. Now, it has been shown that cobalt carbonyl complexes can be used as masked alkyne equivalents, enabling the preparation of stable polyyne polyrotaxanes with up to 34 contiguous triple bonds.

The inherent rigidity of the azaarene ring structure has made it challenging to achieve remote stereocontrol through asymmetric catalysis on these substrates. Now, through a photoenzymatic process, an ene-reductase system facilitates the production of diverse azaarenes with distant γ-stereocentres, highlighting the potential of biocatalysts for stereoselectivity at remote sites.

Asymmetric decarboxylation can transform abundant carboxylic acids into valuable chiral molecules but faces major limitations due to the challenging enantiocontrol of proton transfer. Now the use of Brønsted acid catalysis in conjunction with an anchoring group strategy has enabled the decarboxylative protonation of aminomalonic acids to access diverse amino acids.

Alkene hydrofluoroalkylation offers a promising route to diverse fluoroalkylated compounds but current methods have limitations, such as needing expensive fluoroalkylating reagents. Now, leveraging iron photocatalysis and hydrogen-atom-transfer catalysis, a hydrofluoroalkylation method has been developed that utilizes feedstock chemicals such as trifluoroacetic acid as direct fluoroalkyl radical precursors, providing a redox-neutral, general protocol to introduce fluoroalkyl moieties.

Didier Astruc surveys the numerous applications of ferrocene, from catalysis to materials and redox-related devices including biosensors and nanomedicine.

In the third of a trilogy of essays on types of intelligence, Bruce Gibb mines the thoughts of some of his peers on what personal qualities help chemists achieve success in the lab.

Few explosives are better-known to non-chemists than trinitrotoluene (TNT). Thomas M. Klapötke reflects on the enduring appeal of TNT and whether its starring role as an explosive is nearing its end.

Teaching the history of science along with the science itself can give students greater context about the topic they are learning and a wider perspective on how it has developed. Michelle Francl, who has wrestled with how much time to spend on teaching history in the chemistry classroom for years, considers how unconventional histories can shift the curriculum.

Clinton Veale and Fanie van Heerden discuss the story of natamycin. From its humble telluric origins in Pietermaritzburg, this unique antimicrobial agent has risen to become a mainstay of the food and beverages industry.

There are lots of expectations for assistant professors, and many opportunities that are good for your career. Shira Joudan reflects on making a personalized reference document for how to decide which opportunities are best to pursue, and to which to say ‘no’.