News & Comment

The asymmetric alkylation of aldehydes is made possible by a combination of an organocatalyst and a photoredox catalyst

Simulating the solvation water structure around the faces of an antifreeze protein has revealed insights into their mechanism of action

Two C₆₀ fullerene compounds that do not obey the isolated pentagon rule have been made and characterized

Low-melting-point salts of europium and dysprosium compounds are luminescent — and magnetic — liquids

Spectroscopic data shows that a hydroxide ion can donate a hydrogen bond to water, supporting one of two previously proposed mechanisms for its unusually fast transport in aqueous solution.

High-resolution microscopy reveals that bilayer clusters of ∼10 gold atoms are responsible for most of the activity of a supported gold catalyst

A simple technique for patterning paper-based microfluidic devices could prove useful for medical applications in developing countries

The mechanism behind ligand substitution in a cobalt complex has been revealed by ultra-fast temperature jumps

A carborane anion stabilizes a highly Lewis-acidic silylium cation that catalyses the hydrodefluorination of polyfluoroalkanes

An array of soft-tipped polymer 'pens' enables the production of multiple copies of patterns with multi-length-scale features in a single experiment

Stable five-membered heteroallene rings containing phosphorus are shown to be strong ligands

Metal–organic frameworks prove to have a greater dynamic adsorption capacity than activated carbons for many harmful gases

A soft-ionization mass-spectrometry technique enables label-free imaging of fingerprints based on their chemical composition

A model shows that the heterogeneous chemistry of water-ice clouds has a key role in the composition of the martian atmosphere

Two dichromium compounds with the shortest intermetallic bond distances yet have been made with nitrogen ligands

Controllable peristaltic motion can be achieved by coupling a polymeric hydrogel with an oscillating chemical reaction

Polycyclic aromatic compounds sitting on a platinum surface lose their hydrogen atoms at 750 K and are zipped up to form fullerene molecules

Superhydrophic surfaces enable spherical opalescent arrays to be made with precise shapes

Connecting porphyrins together directly — rather than using additional spacers — results in cyclic molecular arrays with light-harvesting potential

Two formal total syntheses of the antibacterial agent platencin rely on different approaches to a crucial stereoselective Diels–Alder reaction