News & Comment

Thermal rearrangement yields the first example of a bis-silene — a compound containing two carbon–silicon double bonds

Measurement of the viscosity inside a cell with precision and high spatial resolution can be achieved by studying the fluorescence lifetime of a single molecular rotor

A new polymorph of lithium bromide is predicted to be metastable — and is made by a systematic exploration of synthesis conditions

Catalyst-free nanostructure growth can be driven by crystal defects

Peptides that mimic how viruses attach to cells are shown to self-associate before rupturing model cell-membrane surfaces

Hydrogels that are crosslinked by DNA aptamers are triggered to release their cargo in the presence of specific target molecules

A judicious choice of sequences of aromatic amino acid monomers can create three-dimensional structures able to entrap specific guest molecules

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

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

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

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

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

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