[To celebrate the first issue, this week our very own Chief Editor answers the questions]

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

Probably the fact that I found physics too boring and maths too easy — neither of which remains the case today. My first stint at university lasted a little less than 2 weeks; I went to do a Physics & Astrophysics degree at Birmingham and when I got there I discovered that I had made a terrible mistake. After a much-needed ‘year out’, during which there was actually very little ‘finding myself’ or indeed soul searching of any kind, I just plumped for one of the other two subjects I had studied at A-level… and the one I found most challenging was chemistry, and so that was that. I was hooked after the first day of class, when a certain (not-then-Sir) Fraser Stoddart ripped up the syllabus and instead of teaching us the basics of stereochemistry, told us all about Olympiadane and other interlocked molecules…

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be – and why?

Maybe a chef — because that’s essentially chemistry, but you can eat the results. That being said, I’m far too fussy an eater so it probably wouldn’t go well. Obviously in an ideal world I would be a centre-forward playing for Manchester United, but there are many reasons why that never came to pass — mostly because I’m not all that good at football and I have dodgy knees… If I’m being realistic, let’s say an author — I’d quite like to write a book or two.

3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead?

The next issue of Nature Chemistry, and to fame and fortune!

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with – and why?

This is a tough one — and generally the answer I enjoy reading the most in other Reactions pieces. So, I’m going to cheat, as a few have, and host a dinner party with more than one guest. The first two guests I would invite are Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II — monarchs of England (and other associated lands at various stages). I’d just sit back and let these two remarkable women, who have ruled over this country in times that are roughly four centuries apart, compare notes on their experiences. Oh, and just because I probably won’t get to answer this question again, I’d have to invite along Douglas Adams — a fantastic author with an imagination that is out of this world and a sense of humour beyond compare.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab – and what was it?

Probably at Caltech in early 2003, and I bet it was a ring-closing metathesis reaction, but I can’t be 100% sure… it was also likely done in an NMR tube and led to an Angewandte paper if it’s the one I think it was.

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one music album would you take with you?

Well, assuming I have the standard texts that one is allowed in situations like this, including the first print issue of Nature Chemistry, I’m afraid I’m going to have to cheat again on the book front. I first read Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings aged 10, and I couldn’t not take my dog-eared copy with me. But, one of the best books I’ve read in recent times — and one I’m still getting my head around — is The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. For reasons I won’t go into, I finished it while sitting in a deck chair outside a beach hut in Mexico as I watched the sun rise — and it just seemed like a wholly appropriate setting.

In terms of an album… hmm… ask me on a different day and I’m sure you’d get a different answer. So, I’m going to sort of cheat again… if I’m allowed one CD, I’m going to burn 18 different tracks on it… and it would likely contain some of the following: U2, R.E.M., James, New Order, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Manic Street Preachers, Snow Patrol, Nine Inch Nails — and, for those more thoughtful moments, a little bit of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Mozart.

7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions?

Robert Burns Woodward, but since he’s no longer with us, it might be difficult. Living chemists… how about: Barry Sharpless, George Whitesides and E J Corey.

Stuart Cantrill is the Chief Editor for Nature Chemistry.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

I am not “really” a chemist, since I both read for my first degree and carried out my PhD in the Cavendish, the University of Cambridge’s physics department, where I was later on the faculty. And what made me want to be a physicist was an inspiring high-school teacher. But the beauty of modern scientific research is that traditional areas overlap and have merged fruitfully; so that despite my physics background, I work in a department of materials research in a chemistry faculty at the Weizmann Institute, and was for many years the Dr. Lee’s Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University, as well as being head of Oxford’s Physical Chemistry Department.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be – and why?

I very much enjoy explaining to young people and making them aware of the physical world – which I had opportunity to do through my own children in their schools. I would be a teacher.

3. How can chemists best contribute to the world at large?

Many of the world’s really large problems – clean energy shortages, global warming (related of course), prolonging and improving people’s health, and others, are already being addressed by chemists in the broader sense.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with – and why?

If the sky is the limit (as it were): Jesus of Nazareth. I would like to discuss directly with him what his views were, in the light of later interpretations…

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab – and what was it?

In the mid-1990’s, many years after being promoted full professor and heading a relatively large research group, I was still doing my own all-night (surface-forces) experiments with a student or a postdoc for company (night is the best time as ambient vibrations are at a minimum). More recently I go into the lab frequently to look at the experiments, twiddle the knobs (mandatory!), and look through the eyepiece at moving optical fringes…

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one CD would you take with you?

Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I read it page by page to each of my children in turn when they were young, and a few times on my own account, and the world it creates is still vibrant. For music – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, especially useful for a desert island.

Jacob Klein is in the Department of Materials and Interfaces at the Weizmann Institute, and a Professorial Research Fellow at Oxford University. He researches the properties soft matter, in recent years especially the behaviour of highly confined complex fluids and the molecular basis of biological lubrication.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

I was really lucky to have an outstanding chemistry teacher during my high school years. Her name is Yueming Chen. High school time was pretty tough for because of my family background during the period of cultural revolution, Mrs. Chen was a very good chemistry teacher and also very caring. I just fell in love with chemistry. Even though I got my bachelor degree in physics, eventually I found my way back to chemistry.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be – and why?

I think I would become an mechnical engineer. I really love designing and building machines, and I feel I am pretty good at this. This ability and interest actually help me greatly in doing my own chemistry research.

3. How can chemists best contribute to the world at large?

I think chemistry is a very unique field that could make fundamental impacts on our everyday life. I believe that chemistry has also a unique position in solving our most urgent problems in the world, such as energy shortage and environmental problems because chemists have the tools and ability to understand these processes at the most fundamental levels as well as to create new materials that are often required in solving problems. However, we do need to avoid creating more long term problems in solving the most urgent problems.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with – and why?

I would really love to meet Deng Xiaoping. I think he is a great man that has changed many people’s life including mine in a fundamental way. I would want to thank him personally for what he has done for China and its people.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab – and what was it?

I really don’t like to answer this question because this question reminds that I have not done a whole experiment for a long time. I think the last time I did a whole experiment was about 9 years ago. The experiment was water photodissociation. But to be fair, my best time at work even now is with those students who are doing experiments.

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one CD would you take with you?

I would like to bring a big book of papers with nothing on it so I can make drawings or write something everyday for a long time. A CD of Erhu (Chinese violin) music by the famous blind musician Ah Bing, Reflections of the Moon on the Water of Erquan. A beautiful sad and peaceful music. You will never be really tired of this music when you are alone.

Xueming Yang is in the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and works on spectroscpopy and chemical dyanmics in the gas phase as well as on surfaces.