Nature Chemical Biology is pleased to present a special focus on natural products (and terpenes in particular) in the July 2007 issue of the journal. Investigations into natural products have recently regained prominence with the increasing understanding of their biological significance and increasing recognition of the origin and function of their structural diversity. This issue highlights some of the major questions and advances in natural products research, from recent synthetic approaches to access complicated natural products to a new educational program which utilizes natural products as a basis for discovery-based research. The entire contents of the July issue of Nature Chemical Biology are free for one month, including the focus on natural products, which is available here.