Sceptical chemists head to the lab to try out a surprising reaction for themselves.

The collective eyebrows of the blogosphere were raised by a paper in J. Am. Chem. Soc. (doi: 10.1021/ja904224y), which, in the words of Paul Docherty of Totally Synthetic (http://go.nature.com/c6c5ST), “seemed to suggest that black was apparently now white”. And he wasn't the only person to be surprised that NaH acts as an oxidant — Excimer at Carbon Based Curiosities (http://go.nature.com/tUKHuf) picked up on it, as did some commenters at In the Pipeline (http://go.nature.com/jv9N9H). However, when Docherty began to 'live-blog' his attempts to reproduce the work, people beyond the world of organic/synthetic blogs started to take note. More details appeared over the following day or two, with Docherty struggling to reproduce the results when he performed the reaction in an oxygen-free environment. Peter Murray-Rust (http://go.nature.com/FEnMID) thought the whole thing would make a good project for young chemists, and that “This should convince any sceptic that the blogosphere is an essential part of current science”. Even 'real' reporters from Chemistry World (http://go.nature.com/dY7QYX) and C&EN (87, 47; 2009) wrote about the events, with some useful perspectives from those involved, as well as interested bystanders. Chris Braddock, of Imperial College, provides a good summing up: “the mechanism they suggest is far less clear — it does seem that there is some oxidant associated with the NaH that is doing the business”.

Meanwhile, Katharine Sanderson blogged for Nature News (http://go.nature.com/a7bKGq) from the 42nd IUPAC Congress in Glasgow, reflecting the diverse range of chemistry on offer from methanol in space, carbon capture, lithium batteries to the small beginnings of a campaign to save the symbol Cp for the much-loved cyclopentadienyl ligand. It's under threat from the newest element for which its discoverers are suggesting the name copernicium, but as the Polish spelling was Mikolaj Koppernigk, it was mooted that a more appropriate symbol would be Kp.