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Carbon nanotubes can do anything, it seems. And now vertical arrays of nitrogen-doped CNTs have been found to be effective oxygen reduction electrodes, for use in fuel cells. Another cheaper alternative to platinum, which is the usual material used.

According to valence shell electron pair repulsion rules (VSEPR - remember learning those in long-ago undergrad days?), what structure would you expect a compound with 10 Ge atoms around 1 Co? Distribute all those bonds equally and you'd get a bicapped square antiprism. But instead you get a nearly geometrically perfect pentagonal prism — even the Ge–Ge distances BETWEEN the pentagonal faces are nearly the same as those WITHIN the faces.

Platinum and corrosion are two words I don't normally associate with each other — especially because during my PhD we had a (terrifyingly expensive) Pt crucible that could withstand anything, at any temperature. But it looks like chlorine can do it, and exposing certain Pt surfaces to chlorine gas results in PtCl₄ clusters forming as part of a highly ordered Cl-PtCl₄ layer.

And finally...watch this space for more from Stu later today!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

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Let's dive straight in: Catalysts' performances can be tuned by including other metals - for example, a CuPt alloy. You might expect that, for an effective catalyst, the surface would feature more of the reactive metal - in this case, Pt. But no! The less reactive Cu atoms migrate to the surface, where they create islands of Pt atoms to do the biz with the CO molecules.

Catenanes are molecules of interlocked rings and are normally made by interlocking rings containing either pi-donor or -acceptor groups. What Jeremy Sanders and colleagues have done is put pi-donors AND -acceptors into both rings. The building blocks link together with a donor-acceptor-donor-acceptor pi-section.

One day, we'll all be using quantum computers. But to get to that exciting future, we need quantum binary digits - or qubits as they are handily abbreviated to - and to control their entanglement. Now, two Cr7Ni rings have been linked together through a Cu-containing ligand system. This provides three qubits, and their entanglement could be controlled by microwave pulses.

And finally...Gav caught physical chemistry textbook guru Peter Atkins on TV yesterday morning. You may be able to watch on the BBC's iPlayer here. Not a vast amount of chemistry, admittedly, but most definitely a chemist!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

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With most of the UK enduring or enjoying a couple of inches of snow, normal Research Highlight service is resumed.

As we've known since The Graduate, polymers are the future - especially ones that conduct. But the way that electrons (or excitons to be a bit more accurate) move along polymer chains has always been assumed to be by 'hopping' between excited areas. It turns out that they might move more smoothly [the Perspective even says 'surfing'] and even retain some 'coherence'.

Metals from the d- and f-blocks are generally pretty different: directional bonding vs diffuse, a range of oxidation states vs stick-in-the-mud 3+, and so on. Compounds that have a metal from both families, therefore, can be pretty interesting - especially magnetically. And that's just the case for some copper-lanthanide complexes that are (sort of) a trimer of dimers.

Apparently, there was some sort of big sports game thing on Sunday, and it meant Steve could get away with using the word 'suprabowl' in his headline. Topical. Anyway, back to the science. The bowls in question are tris(spiroborate)s that form supramolecular polymers with iridium complexes - at room temperature.

And finally...two links that could help improve the way publishing works. One is hosted by the RSC on behalf of a UK funding body (JISC) to understand how you communicate and use information. The other one is to help categorize the comments on PLoS ONE papers. Do your bit for Science 2.0!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

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Tuesday already! How time flies… Wait no longer, here are this week’s Research Highlights.

The role of aromatic π-π interactions mustn’t be underestimated — they contribute to many biological functions, including pretty crucial ones like the stability of DNA, or drug binding. In previous studies benzene rings had received most of the attention, but you can now find out how heteroatoms affect these interactions.

How about a high-performance, photosensitive, nanoscale field-effect transistor? It is all possible thanks to the self-assembly of organic molecules into columns within the nanogaps of a carbon nanotube…

When it comes to ion recognition, selective binding to chloride (essential to human health) versus, say, cyanide (notably harmful) is essential. Steve tells us about a receptor that captures chloride and determines its concentration even in the presence of significant amounts of water, like in sports drinks.

And finally… although no metric can really quantify the value of scientific research, how can we estimate the importance of a particular paper? The number of citations? The Impact Factor of the journal? It looks like Google's PageRank algorithm might be able to help…

Anne

Anne Pichon (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

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Like a cricket pitch with autumnal goal-posts, here's a small sign of time passing: Research Highlights are now going to be more like 200 words than 250. Why? Because the print version of Nature Chemistry will require shorter stories, so we need to get in the habit now! I hope you've enjoyed the bonus 50 or so words per article - you'll never have it so good again!

So anyway, onto the science. Of the few two-coordinate iron complexes known, most aren't straight because the sneaky iron atom tries to increase its coordination by latching onto the other bits of the ligands. The tertiary-butyl amide complex recently made, however, IS linear. This gives rise to some slightly odd magnetic properties.

How proteins fold up into their beta-sheets is pretty important, especially because misfolding is implicated in some diseases/disorders. Some aminopyrazole derivatives could prevent misfolding, and now how they interact with peptides has been investigated in the gas phase. This led to all sorts of information about the conformation and H-bonding.

Graphene is the two-dimensional nanocarbon poster-child that lots of people are getting excited about - it's even on the BBC website. But what if you could add hydrogen atoms to the sheets, and create 'graphane'? Well...Andre 'Mr Graphene' Geim and Kostya Novoselov have hydrogenated graphene and found that it not only buckles up, but also changes into an insulator. Graphene for hydrogen storage, anyone??

And finally...while some things change (JACS has got cover "artwork" [mmm, nice spectra]), other things don't (the RSC has got a press release with no discernable science)!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 06:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Happy New Year! Here are the first batch of Research Highlights of 2009. (Although I should confess that we wrote them last year...)

So, we all know fuel cells are going to rule the energy world soon...but not if they're stuffed full with platinum and similarly expensive metals. Which is why replacing such precious metals with cheaper ones, like silver, at the cathode is so important. [FYI: I checked out the market and silver is about 100 times cheaper than platinum]

The biological world is full of long chain molecules, like DNA or proteins. How exactly these chains manage to thread through pores - either in enzymes or membranes - is pretty challenging. We're getting closer to understanding thanks to some clever chemistry: threading a fluorescent polymer through a macrocycle until it reaches a certain point, at which it stops fluorescing. The kinetics of threading can therefore by studied by the fluorescence quenching.

Hyperpolarised xenon has been investigated as an alternative to using gadolinium compounds as contrast agents in MRI - it can be probed directly instead of protons. And now Ivan Dmochowski and colleagues have used 129-Xe as a biosensor that can determine the difference between two isozymes of carbonic anhydrase.

So, apart from the honour of being featured on In the Pipeline, what else have we been checking out in the new year? Steve's been looking at some pretty pictures, thanks to his former home Lab on a Chip and their Art in Science feature. I've been learning how to make your home-brew nice and cloud-free - it's all down to Stokes Law and a galactose polymer (carrageenan)...

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

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So here it is...Research Highlights, everybody's having fun. But before we all disappear for Christmas, here are the final RHs of the year.

I covered a pretty smart idea for a class of biosensors. Reducing cynanine dyes means they don't fluoresce, until they come into contact with the nasty reactive oxygen species that mess around with cells. Even cleverer, the reduced forms can slip in and out cells willy-nilly, whereas the fluorescing ones are trapped inside the cells, showing you where the problem is.

You might well have seen this one elsewhere, but now you can read Tim's take on the biomimetic material that's thin and strong - it's all about the ice templating, you know.

Last, but by no means whatsoever least, it's a nifty idea for what could become 'TLC for solid-supported synthesis'. And it involves magnetically levitating beads!

And finally...unlike the BMJ we haven't got a load of spurious research to make it into the news-light festive season newspapers - watch out for next year though - and we're a week before the RSC releases the same story about hangover cures for the 3rd or 4th year running, so I'll leave you with some mathematical clues to help you wrap presents better!

See you all in the New Year - thanks for all the comments in 2008!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

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So, with 2008 drawing to a close, we thought we'd select our favourites from the chemistry we've covered this year. The five of us editors had two picks each, so here's our top 10 (in no particular order):

Gav
Ion transport: Testing the water
Eigen complexes, Zundel complexes, Grotthuss mechanism: there’s some great terminology related to water structure but we still don’t fully understand it! This paper was a good example of how fancy spectroscopic techniques can be used to understand just what is going on with the seriously speedy diffusion of hydroxide ions in water.

Catalytic hydrogenation: Guided by theory
The importance of heterogeneous catalysis to the chemical industry really can’t be overstated, so one of my favourites this year was this theoretical paper by Jens Nørskov and friends. They use computational methods to seek out the best (and economically viable) alternatives to expensive industry-standard hydrogenation catalysts. Watch out for a review in this area next year!

Stu
Nobel Prize 2008: Green fluorescent protein
Over the past few years GFP has been a favourite pick in the numerous 'what will win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year' lists. And now it has — and deservingly so. The question is, what will be the consensus pick for the next few years?

Coordination polymers: Ringing the changes
A research highlight that combines two of my favourite things — beer and football...no wait, I mean coordination polymers and Borromean rings.

Steve
Organocatalysis: Making light work of it
Most organocatalytic reactions involve typical polar reactions between one nucleophilic and one electrophilic partner. Not only is this approach radical, solving a long-standing problem in asymmetric synthesis, it was also the easiest headline I wrote all year.

Enzyme catalysis: Enantioselectivity evolved
Everyone knows that enzymes are good catalysts, but the search for the right enzyme can be a long one. I love the idea of training an enzyme to do what you want – and biasing evolution by using a clever reaction design is probably the ultimate way of achieving this.

Anne
Chirality: Handed over
Chirality can be a somewhat tricky property to introduce in materials. Here, the chirality of organic linkers is preserved and passed on to the bulk of an organosilicate material directly during the synthesis — a very elegant chirality transfer.

Molecular network: Random order
Check out these molecules that, when adsorbed onto a surface, form hexagonal ‘holes’ in a regular array regardless of how they arrange themselves. This leads to an ordered — yet aperiodic — molecular network.

Neil
Protein chemistry: Handy crystallization
The combination of painstaking chemical synthesis of both forms of the protein, followed by the conceptual leap to crystallise both of them in order to get the X-ray structure, made these two papers extremely impressive. And when you add the cool application – antifreeze proteins to help preserve donated organs — it adds up to work that made me say ‘I wish we’d published it!’

Superconductivity: The good samarium
It's solid state inorganic chemistry, it's superconductivity — I love it. This is just a sample of the 'gold rush' of work that was triggered by the pnictide superconductors.

And slightly less seriously, here are our top 10 Research Highlight headlines of the year:

Come on silene
The magnificent seven
Cage closed
The good samarium
Heterogeneous chemistry on Mars
All features great and small
Knot your usual molecules
Supersize sandwich
The 39 steps
Caught in a trap

And many thanks to Jane for copy-editing and Dipti for publishing everything for us all year!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

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I'm dreaming of...Research Highlights.

Making tertiary alcohols (ones without any hydrogen atoms attached to the carbon) with controlled chirality is a lot trickier than making other chiral species like secondary alcohols — those methods often rely on the difference in size between hydrogen and the other substituent. But now, using a simple method allows the choice of two achiral reagents to control which enantiomer is formed. And don't forget to check out the News and Views article that Andy sold his soul so you can read it for FREE (for a week).

Germanium is an element in the no-man's land of semi-metals between metallic and non-metallic elements, but it's still not really a metal. And non-metals have rarely been observed as dications without a lot of accompanying ligands. But now dicationic germanium has been trapped inside a cryptand cage and caught with no clothes on. Which is a great amount of effort to go to in order to let Gav use the headline Caught in a trap.

And my prayers have been answered: a paper with supplementary info movies that show what's going on. So, go and read Tim's highlight about nanocapsules shuttling up and down inside carbon nanotubes, then watch the videos.

And finally...even though we haven't published any issues yet, and won't have an impact factor until about 2011, when we're out and about we still get asked what we think Nature Chemistry's magic number will be. Who knows?? Perhaps by then Thompson ISI will be using the corrected impact factor, as suggested by our heroes over at PHD comics.

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

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A busy week in the Nature Chemistry office: Anne has just returned from a tour of Japanese universities, Stu is about to head off to Bath for Catalysis and Sensing for our Environment 08, Gav's already in Grenoble for ElecMol 08, Steve's visiting Harvard tomorrow and I'm off to a symposium in honour of Professor the Lord Lewis of Newnham at the Royal Society on Thursday and Friday. Phew! But we've still time to bring you a dose of Research Highlights.

Total synthesis can be mind-bogglingly difficult, so why not just go and marvel at bryostatin 16?

Dendrimers, I imagine, are probably normally a big writhing mass of chemistry, but these pyrene dendrimers sound a lot more...staid. Thanks to the stiffness of the dendron units themselves, the whole thing is pretty rigid.

Another article that really needs a movie...swimming microparticles! Although rowing is quite a good way to get your head round it. A big particle (the boat) is linked to a smaller one (the oar). They're magnetic, so a precessing magnetic field makes them rotate (errr, the rower? Bear with me!). In a bulk solvent, they'd just happily rotate, but when they're close to a surface, the viscosity gradient means that the oar 'grips' the the gloopier liquid and the particle/boat moves.

And finally...some shameless slapping of our own backs. According to this post over at Nascent, we almost totally rule! Well, we're in joint second place for the chemistry blog most linked from the blogs registered at nature.com blogs.

Thanks for linking,
Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Monday = Research Highlights.

What actually happens when molecules isomerise? How do the atoms really move? I've never really thought about how little I know about it, so it was interesting to read how stilbene (two benzene rings linked by double-bonded carbon atoms) twists as it changes from cis to trans. It's just a shame there's no movie with the article!

As I'm sure many of you know (and as more organic colleagues have told me), making complicated organic molecules can, apparently, be a rather time-consuming and tricky business. Removing tongue from cheek, being able to sample as large a portion of 'chemical space' as possible is crucially important in drug discovery. Now, using only 6 simple reactions (hence Steve's 'Six degrees of separation' headline) a team at Leeds have been able to generate over 80 different scaffolds.

Molecules adsorbed on a surface are unlikely to align themselves in periodic, crystalline array. But using a molecule that can bond in defined ways resulted in a hexagonal 'hole' appearing no matter how the molecules themselves were arranged. This resulted in the holes forming an ordered array while the actual molecules had no order.

I'm afraid the chemistry blogosphere/world of news has run dry for the "And finally..." section this week, so you'll have to put up with this shocking joke:
Why do white bears dissolve in water?
Because they're polar.

I do apologise - any better ones gratefully received!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Let's be havin' some Research Highlights.

Ring-closing metathesis lets you (well, organic chemists) make a lot of different sizes of rings, and is tolerant to different functional groups, but it still can't quite do everything. It's domination of the world has come a step closer, however, thanks to some fluxional ligands. The catalysts are stereogenic at the metal centre, meaning you (well, organic chemists) can do rapid enantioselective catalysis.

Papers about hydrophobic surfaces often contain great pictures and/or videos of the materials in action (which provides me with another excuse to link to the superhydrophobic desktop hockey video!), but materials that can repel organic species are much rarer. So creating a surface that is repellant to both "oil" and water is pretty impressive. It's all about the shape of the surface features...

As people's responses to Question 3 in Reactions interviews are telling us, it's All About Energy. So understanding how enzymes work - for example oxidising hydrogen - could give us clues on how to produce energy more cleanly. Which is why studying how a model of hydrogen bonding to a di-iron model of an enzyme can reveal the role of electron-donating ligands on the spectator iron.

Did you enter the Dance your PhD thesis competition?? I hope so - you can enjoy the winning entries here.

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's a good week for Research Highlights...

Firstly, it's good to see chemists really getting in on the act with graphene. The original route to make it (using sticky tape) was a little bit comical, but "chemical" methods were hindered by the sheets of carbon atoms re-aggregating. It turns out that using the reducing agent, hydrazine, as a solvent as well stops the problem.

Next, electrodes have been used to investigate biological signalling for oooh ages. But most biological signals are chemical, not electrical. To investigate them, Rustem Ismagilov and colleagues have created a microfluidic 'chemistrode' - it can stimulate, record and analyse the released molecules. [Alternative headline for this piece that I wouldn't let Gav get away with: Chemistrode to joy. Groan.]

Thirdly, sulfur can form bonds to itself very easily (hence its many allotropes), but it can also form 'hypervalent' bonds (in sulfuranes) - where its formal valence is above 8. Organic compounds like this are incredibly rare, and generally unstable, so its quite an achievement that a sulfur-substituted organosulfurane has been made and structurally characterised. Similar S–S bonds are found in proteins, so the ease with which they can be cleaved in this model has implications for redox processes in biology.

And finally, in an effort to even up the culinary War of the Roses, here is a link to a recipe for Lancashire Hotpot. It's quite interesting to see that the page says "Keep in mind that this is cooking, not chemistry, so a few grams this way or that won't matter." What an excellent and accurate sentiment!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Put the kettle on, settle down and read our Research Highlights.

The Born-Oppenheimer approximation simplifies the Schrodinger equation into more manageable pieces (unlike physicists, some of us have to deal with more than one electron...) and is pretty crucial for quantum chemistry. It doesn't always hold, however, but in some complicated physical chemistry we let Gav write about, it still holds up in reactions between hydrogen and chlorine.

Seeing as one day nanoscale people will be driving around in nanoscale cars, it's worth making sure that they won't be breaking the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Fortunately for everyone, it doesn't look like they will: a classical mechanical ratchet on the molecular scale just slows down, rather than going in one direction.

Molecular knots are normally tricky beasts to make - as you might expect - but now a method to make some by simply allowing silver ions and organic ligands to diffuse together takes only one step. Different length ligands produce different knots.

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 04:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Time for another dose of Research Highlights - we scour the literature so you don't have to...

First up, would you expect ionic liquids to separate into layers of anions and cations on surfaces? At first glance, you'd probably think they'd mix it around to balance the charge - but not if the surface is charged, as is the case.

Next we have some 'double metallocenes' - rather than just one Cp (or indeed Cp*) ring above and below the metal, these have two fused Cp* rings sandwiching two metals. In the 250-word article, I didn't have space to go into the full story of the magnetic, electronic and redox properties investigated, so you'll have to go over to JACS for the details.

Serendipity...not just a good name for a cat or a posh word for luck. Where would chemistry be without it? In this case, without a method for 'fixing' fingerprints. While trying to make sulfur nitride polymers Paul Kelly and colleagues noticed that the precursor, disulfur dinitride, was so reactive that it was even reacting with the fingerprints on the glassware...and you can imagine the rest!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Greetings blogateers, welcome to another batch of Research Highlights.

Busy week for Gabor Somorjai: paper in Science, featured in C+E News editorial, now a Nature Chemistry Research Highlight! Gav covers the work, which used ambient-pressure XPS to discover that bimetallic nanoparticles essentially turn inside out in different conditions.

Someone else with a busy week was David Milstein, who had a paper in Big Nature, features in this week's ChemPod (which itself features in C+E News) and now in a Research Highlight. Oxo complexes are believed to intermediates in lots of crucial catalytic processes, but isolating complexes has been extremeley difficult - find out how here.

Picking up almost as much attention is our final piece: did YOU know that bananas fluoresce blue under UV light - but only when they're ripe?? It's quite amazing to think that in all the years that humans have had UV lights no-one's noticed this before!

And in this week's prize for Press Releases with Staggeringly Tenous Links to Chemistry, the RSC win again! To add to the annals of cringe (Sherlock Holmes, 'on-screen chemistry', football managers chewing gum, Carol Vorderman in mauve...), there's a competition that manages to shoehorn chemistry into the Italian Job. You can win a trip to Turin, so it's almost worth gritting your teeth and having a go. Do remember that submissions must "be based upon the principles of serious scientific rigour" (whatever that means), helicopters aren't allowed, and you can't use what Michael Caine has revealed would have been the real ending. And they got the quote wrong - spotter's badge to film-boy Ed.

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Monday morning usually means a big jug of coffee, discussions about points accrued over the weekend in the Nature fantasy football league and of course... Nature Chemistry Research Highlights.

First up, Steve discusses studies on the unexpected reactivity of bidentate ligands, carried out in my beautiful hometown of Durham.

Neil writes about a technique for creating nanoscale square patterns using the supramolecular assembly and controlled phase separation of diblock copolymers.

And Anne describes research that shows the transmission of chirality from a monomer to a solid mesoporous material during its polymeric synthesis.

And finally, since the closest I get to doing experiments these days is playing around in my kitchen (and as announced on the last ChemPod, I honestly do wear my Nature Chemistry lab coat when cooking) an interesting "taster" for a book called “The Hungry Scientist Handbook” caught my eye in Wired magazine.

Using kitchen equipment for science seems to be the order of the day. Over at Chemical Technology (once edited by our very own Dr. Withers) they’ve just published a story called “Lab-on-an-egg-beater”.

Gav

Gavin Armstrong (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Gavin Armstrong at 04:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hammer Research Highlight time.

Chemists love stressed and strained molecules - this must be true because Roald Hoffman and Philip Ball say so. Karl Irikura from NIST predicts that adamantane (imagine 4 fused cyclohexanes, or just look at the picture in the article!) can be stable with one of the hydrogen atoms pointing into the cage. He doesn't predict how to make it though, so over to the synthesis guys...

Our new editor, Anne - the final piece in the NChem team jigsaw - writes about 'tagging' metal–organic framework materials so their volume can be fine tuned.

Our third one this week covers a certain prize you might have noticed being awarded last week. Well done to Stu for writing the piece in record time! On quite a sobering note, read about what Douglas Prasher is up to now - he isolated the gene behind GFP.

And finally...Martyn Poliakoff talks about the Nobel Prize on the Periodic Table of Videos. Want to be a science video star yourself? Why not enter the Science Dance Contest - all you have to do is interpret your PhD through the medium of dance! I can't wait to see what chemistry looks like in dance format...

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 04:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's the weekly pick of the chemistry pops that we call Research Highlights...

It's not a ring of fire, but a ring of stability for our first piece. Oxonium ions (positively charged, triply bonded oxygen) are normally pretty unstable, but putting it at the core of a fused tricyclic compound makes a stable one - enough to be refluxed for 72 hours!

There's a lot of carbon locked up in wood that could be used as a chemical feedstock instead of fossil fuels, but how do you get at it? Use a solid acid catalyst, that's how. This hydrolyses the bulky cellulose into more smaller and more useful sugars.

The reason enzymes are such great catalysts is because they're very specialised - so much so that it's hard to get them to react with other substrates. Using a carrot and stick method to feed or kill bacteria depending on whether the enzymes they produce are effective or not, enzymes that act on the un-natural enantiomer were produced.

And finally...hooray for the Ig Nobel Prizes for research that 'first makes people laugh, then makes them think'. The chemistry prize was split between two groups: one that showed cola can act as a spermicide and one that showed that it didn't. Gav deserves a prize for asking whether they used Virgin Cola...

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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)

Posted by Stephen Davey at 05:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here are this week's pick of the (chemistry) pops: Research Highlights

In a smooth (and completely serendipitous) link to big Nature's insight on small molecule catalysis, we feature a new step in catalysis: merging the features of organocatalysis with photocatalysis. The paper's by David MacMillan, who also has a commentary in the insight here.

Next up, we all know that C₆₀ is a wonderfully symmetrical molecule, shaped like a football/soccer ball, right? Well, that's only one of 1812 possible isomers of C₆₀, and two of the less symmetrical ones have now been made. They're not as pretty as buckminsterfullerene, but you can functionalise them in more specific places.

Here in the northern hemisphere, leaves are starting to change colour, but it feels a long time until we'll need to dig out the anti-freeze. Some animals survive sub-zero temperature thanks to anti-freeze proteins, but how they work hasn't really been well understood. Now molecular dynamics simulations have shown that it's the ordering of the water molecules around the protein that disrupts the crystallisation.

And finally...want to build a space elevator? Carbon nanotubes to the rescue! Is there anything they can't do...?

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 06:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Neil's away this week - enjoying Strasbourg - which means that I get the opportunity to introduce this week's research highlights (and myself) on TSC.

First up is Gav, covering a Nature Letter that explains how photoelectron spectroscopy can tell us more about why hydroxide ion transport in water is so fast.

Neil (the absent one), writes about a couple of papers which report water-free f-block ionic liquids. The luminescence properties are much improved when you can avoid water, and those based on dysprosium are magnetic as well.

And, the way gold catalysts are prepared can have a marked effect on their activity. Jane writes about some high resolution microscopy that shows that small clusters of 10 gold atoms are responsible for most of the catalytic activity.

Finally, some readers of TSC will be old enough to recall being allowed to use copper sulfate to grow some nice blue crystals at school. It's poisonous though, so you don't get it in chemistry sets anymore, which makes me wonder who supplies Roger Hiorns? He creates artwork by filling everday objects with copper sulfate solution and letting the crystals grow where they will - his latest creation 'Seizure' makes use of a derelict flat in London. Check out the video on YouTube.

Actually, I wonder if he also has a return agreement with his supplier? - after all those recrystallisations it ought to be worth selling back....

Steve

Stephen Davey (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

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Monday, Monday...time for your weekly dose of Research Highlights.

At the start of a packed programme this week, we feature a method to make prototypes for microfluidic devices out of paper. These 'lab on a chip' devices mean you can do reactions with tiny volumes of liquid in a tiny space and are hoped to be useful for things like medical diagnostics in future. Being able to make prototypes out of paper, using just a photocopier or black marker pen — besides just being damn cool — could make them available in places without photolithographic facilities.

How fast does it take your kettle to boil? It probably doesn't heat the water by ~10 °C in ~10 picoseconds, which is how fast Ahmed Zewail's laser heats samples in his ultrafast T-jump method. As the molecules are relaxing after their sudden excitement, you can find out new information. Such as the dynamics of a series of cobalt complexes, as in this case.

CFCs are bad for the ozone layer, but some of their replacements, hydrofluorocarbons, can be bad for your health — or act as "super" greenhouse gases. And those C–F bonds are just so strong that they hang around in the environment. So hooray for a catalyst that can convert them into more pleasant hydrocarbons. It's a silylium species (R₃Si+), stabilised by a very stable carborane anion.

I've occasionally wondered if chemists like coffee more than non-chemists, given the obsession shown by many of my past and present colleagues, and the twitching shown in the queues at break times at conferences. I've also wondered whether you could use proper lab equipment to make a REALLY good cup. It turns out you can, as this blog demonstrates! The Sceptical Chymist will hold no responsibility for the sleepless nights of readers who try this out...

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 04:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's Research Highlight time!

First up, a method for creating patterns that works on different length scales at the same time AND doesn't need a time-consuming predefined pattern. It's called polymer pen lithography and relies on the 'squishiness' of the polymer to create patterns on different scales.

Next, metal-organic framework materials could be used to remove harmful gases from the air. Thanks to the fact that you can tune the size and functionality of their pores, they perform better than activated carbon.

What's your favourite ligand? Maybe in future it could be a cyclic vinylidenephosphorane, now that Guy Bertrand and colleagues have made a stable one. These have been proposed as alternatives to N-heterocyclic carbenes, but none has been found to exist at room temperature until now.

And finally, continuing our selfless quest to investigate beer so you don't have to, we were alarmed to read this story at New Scientist this morning: 'Gender bending' chemicals found in beer and wine.

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 04:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As the title suggests, a good range in this week's Research Highlights.

What do you know about the martian atmosphere? If the answer is "not a lot", you can find out about how the heterogeneous chemistry of radicals and cloud ice makes a difference.

There's a new addition to the venerable science of fingerprints, as Graham Cooks at Purdue turns his DESI mass spec technique in a CSI direction. They can now detect different chemicals present on fingerprints, such as drugs or explosives.

You know how it is: you wait ages for a metal–metal bond under 1.8 Å, then two come along at once! That's what's happened with two groups independently making compounds with the shortest Cr–Cr quintuple bonds. You can read Katharine's take on it over at big Nature news.

And finally...want to find your DNA soul mate? Now you can, thanks to a Boston company that will analyze the DNA behind your immune system and find the best match for you. And it only costs $1,995.95. Is there is anything chemistry (and a couple of grand) can't do?!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While half the office seems to be at the ACS, from London here's another slice of what's going on in the world of chemistry: our Research Highlights.

Stu covers a Nature letter that shows that you can make C₆₀ using a more advanced method than just vapourizing graphite rods. By putting the right aromatic precursor on a platinum surface and heating, the atoms just curl up into the familiar spherical shape.

My highlight covers a route for making arrays of colloidal particles, which resemble opals. These sparkly microspheres are made on a superhydrophobic surface, which gives really good size and shape control.

Gav worked on the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction during his PhD, so was quite excited to cover some work putting it to an interesting use. Coupling the BZ reaction to a responsive hydrogel results in a material that shows a peristalsis effect. If, like me, you can only dimly remember what that means, think of toothpaste tubes or swallowing mechanisms!

Keeping us amused in the world of science this week has been this extra digging on the cloned dogs story. And the news that scientists have proved that 'beer goggles' are real. I'd like to hope that the researchers are now getting to grips with the beer jacket and beer scooter phenomena.

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 04:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just to keep you on your toes, Research Highlights are coming to you on a Tuesday this week. So read on for your chemistry fix!

Steve loves total synthesis, and he got to write about TWO approaches to a pretty hot natural product. Platencin shows activity against MRSA and has been tackled a few times recently, but these approaches are effecient and rapid.

Next up, some porphyrins are linked together directly, rather than with spacers, and that gives cyclic arrays with better light-harvesting potential.

And last, but laughably by no means least...you might have noticed a vast amount of press coverage about Dan Nocera and Matthew Kanan's water-splitting Co catalyst. We couldn't really not cover it! I was fortunate enough to hear Dan's talk about it at ICCC38 and speak to him afterwards. For those wondering if this really will be the next big thing, he said an Arab oil sheik is going to use the technology in 50,000 houses in a new town...gulp.

You can see a video about the breakthrough made by Chemical Explorers, or the man himself at MIT Tech TV.

And finally...a wine-tasting sensor has got a lot of coverage this week, but I think I'd rather take the risk and do the tasting myself! Meanwhile, apparently there's a little sporting event happening over in China. Seeing as chemists most often get bad press at the Olympics thanks to drug cheats, here's a slightly more positive angle: Oxford chemistry graduate Jen Goldsack is competing in the double sculls for the US. Any other Olympian chemists out there??

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 04:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After a little while out of the office, what better to start the week than bring you all some fresh Research Highlights...

In a nifty link to Catherine's post on pi interactions, Steve highlights some people measuring arene–arene face-to-face inteactions.

Ros has written about rotaxane molecules whose muscle-like contraction can be controlled by different wavelenghts of light.

And finally, Jane features some work by Ben Feringa and colleagues, who have speeded up a molecular rotary motor based on cyclopentane - it now speeds round at megahertz frequencies, thanks to a picosecond photochemical isomerisation.

As it's the start of a new month, why not go and check what's Astromolecule of the Month over at The Astrochymist?

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This week we have covered quite a range of topics in our Research Highlights...

First of all we have some nifty metal-ion sensors that are made by attaching different chromophores to 8-hydroxyquinoline - a group that serves as a receptor for various metal ions.

Then, we cover the latest twist on metal-organic frameworks in which simple benzene-based linkers have been replaced with much more funky carboranes - and see how that affects their gas adsorption properties.

Finally, some designer coordination polymers that not only act as hosts for water clusters and nitrate ions, but have an intricate interwoven topology based on the Borromean rings.

Tune in for more this time next week...

Stuart

Stuart Cantrill (Chief Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Stuart Cantrill at 08:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Another week and another set of Research Highlights to tell you about...

First up is a report on the conversion of carbon-11 labelled methyl iodide into formaldehyde using a rapid and high-yielding approach, that offers new opportunities for radio-labelling.

Next, we feature a couple of papers in a single highlight, that look at protein synthesis and crystallization. The twist here is that both mirror image forms of a protein are synthesized chemically and then the racemate is crystallized in order to study their structural properties.

Finally, researchers in Japan take a closer look at nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions and observe an elusive sigma-complex intermediate through which the reactions are thought to proceed.

More next week...

Stuart

Stuart Cantrill (Chief Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Stuart Cantrill at 08:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Morning everyone, it's Research Highlights time.

First up, Gav covers a paper from our sister journal, Nature Materials. It's by Michael Grätzel and colleagues, and they've developed stable ionic liquid mixtures to use in solar cells.

Although sniffer dogs aren't out of a job just yet, 'electronic noses' are getting better. Here's one that combines peptides with Si nanowires to sniff out molecules in the gas phase.

A lot of work on porous materials is focused on the size of the pores, but it looks like subtle changes in the materials building blocks can affect the reactivity of guest molecules.

And finally, we love this video of a chemical party that promotes the EU-funded Marie Curie Actions to support 'training and mobility activities for researchers'.

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We have just the thing to pick you up from your post-weekend back-to-work blues: another selection of research highlights.

Our first highlight reports work on a clever self-healing coating, made-up of several nanolayers, that can heal itself after being scratched.

In the second selection, Ros highlights the synthesis of dendritic scaffolds that could have potential as bacterial infection inhibitors.

Single-molecule magnets are the focus of the third highlight, more specifically the modification of their properties by encapsulating them with polyoxometalate ligands.

And finally, following on from our previous post on periodic tables: Daniel over on “The Great Beyond” told us of a new and strange chemistry creature — a chemical element elephant.

Gav

Gavin Armstrong (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Gavin Armstrong at 04:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It’s time for another batch of research highlights.

First up, fresh back from his trip to Korea, Steve writes about a counterintuitive approach to creating stereocentres: by destroying them first!

Second, the story of greedy metal complexes. Neil tackles the synthesis of a series of heteromultimetallic complexes that contain up to 7 (that’s SEVEN!!) different metal atoms.

Lastly, I get to grips with a motor driven by a light-sensitive elastomeric belt.

Finally, news that wine-lovers across the world can be happy about (I’m off to Napa, California, in a couple of weeks so I’m happy). Eating meat is healthier with a glass of wine than without (maybe it’s not that simple but that’s how I’m going to understand it!). The original paper can be found here.

Gav

Gavin Armstrong (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Gavin Armstrong at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Apologies to all those who logged in on Friday to read the witty and humorous NChem research highlight update but (for various reasons) they will now be brought to you on Mondays - although the highlights themselves will still go live on Fridays.

Another change this week: I’ve been called off the bench to liven things up (like Cesc Fabregas last night in Euro 2008) and replace Neil who is currently gallivanting on the west coast of America.

We all love yeast in the NChem office, (bread, beer, marmite) so before he left, Neil wrote about a mass spec method that has been developed for measuring the metabolites of single yeast cells.

We also all love chocolate and Steve had the pleasure of writing about work on its structure that could hopefully lead to prolonging its shelf-life.

The final paper is about catalysis; more specifically its about the search for cheaper ethylene hydrogenation catalysts.

Some very small versions of a couple of our favourite games caught our eye this week, first a micro version of the highly addictive game tetris and second, a superhydrophobic desktop hockey game.

And finally, if you run out of reagents in the lab this week you could always raid the liquor cabinet. Last week saw some seriously ingenious chemists make diamond out of tequila.

Gav

Gavin Armstrong (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Gavin Armstrong at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's that time of the week again...

Steve's piece this week is about stereochemistry, and how it can be indirectly transferred from the periphery of a dendrimer to its catalytic core.

Gav highlights a molecular switch that's used to alter the Lewis acidity of a boron compound, by virtue of cross conjugation.

Cross conjugation also features strongly in the final highlight, because it seems that the simple rules for electron transfer don't work for cross-conjugated systems.

Although it's nice to see chemistry getting a prominent mention in this Daily Telegraph article, we're a little concerned about the phrase 'the chicken molecule'! Other things that we've found on the net this week include 'science facebook' and possibly the best online periodic table — what's your site of choice?

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Time for our next trio of research highlights

It might not have escaped your notice that some people have made a new family of high-Tc superconductors...here's a piece about the 43 K samarium one. Of course, this field is moving terrifying quickly at the moment, so I'm sure my story's out of date by now! The physics pre-print server ArXiv for this area is about as up to date as you're going to get.

Proteins that have unfolded, or folded up the wrong way, are responsible for some pretty nasty diseases (Alzheimer's, CJD), so being able to re-fold them to more or less their original state would be quite handy - this one's about gold nanoparticles used to that effect.

All you synthetic organic chemistry junkies out there will no doubt be big fans of the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling already, but have you thought about trying it with simple aryl methyl ethers? These guys have...

And finally, here's a link that will make you very glad you're a chemist. The headline says it all: Zombie caterpillars controlled by voodoo wasps. There's even a movie for the iron-stomached among you.

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Morning everyone, Friday can only mean one thing.

First up is a pretty clever idea: a supramolecular capsule with pores that can open and close. Some pretty obvious advantages for controlled release.

Next to be covered is a paper from Science that you might have seen highlighted elsewhere: a nifty spectroscopic technique where they vibrationally excite a molecule before studying its rotational spectrum. It's so fast you can look at both isomers of a molecule - and all the states in between.

And finally, a polymer whose phase transition involves such a large change in length that a fibre is able to make an object 250 times its weight move on uphill. The object is a US dime, so there are potential uses in piggy banks across the world!

I hope you enjoy this week's batch - time for me to edit next week's...

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 04:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Morning everyone, it's research highlight time!

Apart from having a really cheesy headline(credit goes to Gav), my piece is on a double-whammy in silicon chemistry: the first compound with two C=Si double bonds AND the first metal-substituted silene — in the same compound.

Steve tackles some total synthesis, writing about Phil Baran's assault on (+)-cortistatin A, where they had to use a side door to access a ring-expanding cascade. There's more about this over on Totally Synthetic.

And finally...how are your knees? If they're suffering from osteoarthritis or acute pseudogout, chances are they've got crystals of calcium phosphate in them. Read Gav's highlight about how the crystal culprits can be detected with magnetic beads.

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 04:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Morning everyone, here are this week's research highlights:

Viscosity is a property that's easy to think about on the bulk scale (pouring syrup compared to water, for example), but it's less easy to get your head around it on a molecular scale. But using a molecular rotor, viscosity can be measured within cells...

Heard of the Eshelby twist? No, it's not a 1950s dance craze, but a type of crystal defect, and it can be exploited to make some very pretty looking nanotrees...

And finally this week, a subject quite dear to my heart: solid-state synthesis. Having spent rather a long and frustating time during my PhD trying (and failing) to make a whole raft of compounds that calculations predicted should exist, I'm glad to see that other people have been successful in making a new polymorph of lithium bromide — exactly as predicted.

Enjoy.

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 04:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Another Friday, another batch of Research Highlights for you all to enjoy.

Steve's is about a pretty clever hydrogel. Hydrogels are potential carriers for drugs, but how do you get them to release their cargo in the right place? Aptamers are the answer...

Gav has written about some work by Richard Zare's group that looks at how viruses might 'break in' to cells. They used surface plasmon resonance to study a model virus attaching itself to a model cell.

And finally...oligoamide foldamers are strings of amides or amino acids that...well, fold up. A bit like proteins or DNA do. But if you can get them to fold AROUND something, you can use them to trap molecules. Jane tells us more about work done to this end in France and China.

Hope you enjoy this crop - if you have any feedback or comments, please let us know!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 04:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Happy Friday everyone, and welcome to this week's batch of research highlights.

Fullerenes:
Buckyballs act just like giant atoms, complete with s, p and d orbitals that are bound to the sphere's hollow centre

Antitumour agents:
Hiding a potent, but insoluble, anticancer drug inside a cage complex represents a new approach to the use of inorganic chemotherapeutics

Self-assembly:
Discrete complexes comprising stacks of up to nine aromatic molecules can be assembled in one step from a few simple building blocks

As for last week, anyone can read the articles for free, but you need to sign up for a free account first.

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Neil Withers at 05:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Each Friday, the Nature Chemistry website will be updated with three new research highlights about interesting work that has caught the attention of the editors, here is this week's line up:

Heterogeneous catalysis:
Scanning transmission electron tomography is used to create 3D images of active sites in nanoscale catalysts

Surface chemistry:
Subsurface carbon and hydrogen have an important role in selective palladium-catalysed alkyne hydrogenation

Alkaloid biogenesis:
Indole alkaloids extracted from closely related fungi lead to questions about how their biochemical pathways have evolved

The highlights are free to access, but you need to have a (free) nature.com account.

Stuart

Stuart Cantrill (Chief Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Posted by Stuart Cantrill at 04:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)