This week both Neil and Gavin are away, although this time they are both working! Neil is attending the 6th International conference on Inorganic Materials in Dresden, and Gav is yet to return from China, having been at TACC 2008 (computational chemistry) and is combining his trip with some visits to labs close by.

So down to business with this weeks research highlights - Tim is first up writing about the an energy storage device that utilizes the special properties of graphene.

Gav writes about computational investigations into a catalyst that cleaves the immensely strong triple bond in dinitrogen - very topical given the conference he has been attending.

And...me, I'm covering a total synthesis that provides a tough test for no less than three pieces of synthetic methodology.

Finally a mention has to go to the cover of this week's Nature, with its special feature on the US election (see the story in The Times). To get the full benefit of this cover though you'll need a print copy (open it right out so you can see the front and back covers side by side - a truly fantastic accident).

Steve

Stephen Davey (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)