Kemi Oloyede reflects on the importance of having LGBTQ+ STEM events, and their role in combatting inertia in the scientific community.

Governments worldwide are committing more funding for scientific research in the face of the ongoing pandemic and climate crises. However, the funding process must be restructured to remove the barriers arising from conscious and unconscious biases experienced by minoritized groups, including women, and particularly women of colour.

The time between accepting a position as an assistant professor and taking the role is exciting and unique. But how much work is required before you even start? Shira Joudan ponders which tasks are necessary and how many times one should interrupt a very well-deserved break.

Matthew Horwitz, creator of the Synthesis Workshop video podcast, talks to Nature Chemistry about using podcasting as a driver of professional-level education in the chemistry community.

Water-soluble, cell-permeable, inert fluorescent tags called OregonFluors have been developed to withstand environmental changes while resistant towards non-specific binding with subcellular structures. These tags enable quantitative imaging of drug target availability in cells and tissues, providing a route for the future assessment of personalized therapies.

Borylated bicyclopentanes and bicyclohexanes are valuable compounds in drug research but are difficult to prepare. Now, an iridium-catalysed method has been developed for the borylation of the bridgehead tertiary C–H bonds in bicyclopentanes and bicyclohexanes, providing access to a variety of highly decorated bicyclic cores.

Californium is difficult to prepare in its divalent state. Now, crystals of a Cf(II) crown–ether complex have been synthesized by reduction of a Cf(III) precursor with an Al/Hg amalgam. They exhibit 5f→6d transitions in the visible region and near-infrared emission that are highly sensitive to changes in the coordination environment.

In contrast to phosphine and arsine oxides, stibine oxides have been challenging to isolate in monomeric forms as they tend to polymerize. Now, such a SbO moiety has been kinetically stabilized using sterically bulky protecting groups, and its reactivity found to be substantially different to that of its lighter pnictogen counterparts.

Quasicrystals are intriguing structures that exhibit long-range positional correlations but no periodicity in real space. Now, T-shaped amphiphilic molecules featuring rigid cores have been found to self-assemble into a columnar liquid quasicrystal with dodecagonal symmetry. The honeycomb structure observed arises from a strictly quasiperiodic tessellation of square, triangular and trapezoidal tiles, rather than from random tiling.

Photochemical reduction of CO₂ is a significant challenge and many existing methods use catalysts containing rare metals. Now a metal-free version of this reaction—with high selectivity for formate generation over H₂ or CO—has been achieved that features a combination of carbazole photosensitizer and organohydride catalyst.

Jane Liao and Allie C. Obermeyer explore the discovery, modification and applications of green fluorescent protein, best known for its use as a tool to cast light on cellular processes.

Does the pursuit of scientific research based on a well-defined technological outcome hamper our ability to be creative? And does it limit opportunities to explore and develop fundamental areas of science that may ultimately lead to applications we hadn’t even thought of yet?

Zafra Lerman talks to Nature Chemistry about embedding art in science education, and science in the pursuit of peace on Earth.

The time between accepting a position as an assistant professor and taking the role is exciting and unique. But how much work is required before you even start? Shira Joudan ponders which tasks are necessary and how many times one should interrupt a very well-deserved break.

Rahul Dev Mukhopadhyay and Kimoon Kim consider how cucurbiturils — pumpkin-shaped macrocycles — went from curiosities to compelling cavitands for a host of applications.

Matthew Horwitz, creator of the Synthesis Workshop video podcast, talks to Nature Chemistry about using podcasting as a driver of professional-level education in the chemistry community.