Nature Chemistry Contents November 2011 Volume 3 Number 11 pp 831-900

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To register and for more information, visit: www.nature.com/natureconferences/fem2012   Editorial Top The perfect peer p831 doi:10.1038/nchem.1185 What makes the ideal referee report? Full Text | PDF Thesis Top Lost history versus good science pp832 - 833 Qian Wang and Chris Toumey doi:10.1038/nchem.1179 The historical context in which a scientific paper is published is an important factor that should not be overlooked, suggest Qian Wang and Chris Toumey. Full Text | PDF Research Highlights Top π-bond-rich hydrocarbons: Cycloaddition cascade | Bioinspired materials: Pitcher plant perfect | Mechanochemistry: Tearing apart triazoles | Drug polymorphism: Aspirin headache solved | Magnetic molecules: Spin switch Blogroll: Carnival! p835 doi:10.1038/nchem.1191 Full Text | PDF News and Views Top DNA complexes: Durable binders pp836 - 837 Adam R. Urbach doi:10.1038/nchem.1173 A tetra-intercalator compound that threads through a DNA double-helix to form a remarkably stable complex exhibits an unusual combination of sequence specificity and rapid association yet slow dissociation. Full Text | PDF See also: Article by Holman et al. Biophysics: Breaking out of the cage pp837 - 839 Chia-Ching Chou and Markus J. Buehler doi:10.1038/nchem.1182 Activating caged reactive sites in proteins using mechanical force provides a powerful approach in the study of chemical reactions, and provides greater insight into which reactions are possible and their rates. Full Text | PDF See also: Article by Alegre-Cebollada et al. Solid acid catalysts: Stain and shine pp839 - 840 Peng Chen doi:10.1038/nchem.1183 Catalyst particles for fluid catalytic cracking are vital for the oil-refinery industry, but their activity is hard to diagnose because of their inter- and intra-particle structural inhomogeneity. With fluorescence confocal microscopy and selective staining, one can now pinpoint the catalytic activity within single catalyst particles from an industrial reactor. Full Text | PDF See also: Article by Buurmans et al. Bioenergetics: Proton fronts on membranes pp840 - 842 Noam Agmon and Menachem Gutman doi:10.1038/nchem.1184 Proton migration on membranes is a crucial step in the bioenergetics of the cell. It has typically been regarded as slow successive proton transfers between ionizable moieties within the membrane, but recent measurements suggest fast lateral diffusion in the membrane's hydration layer. Full Text | PDF Molecular devices: Communicating chirality pp842 - 843 Jonathan Clayden doi:10.1038/nchem.1181 Conformational control can be used to transmit information in the form of chirality over relatively long molecular distances and could be the key to the preparation of minimalistic synthetic mimics of biological systems. Full Text | PDF See also: Article by Ousaka et al. Chemistry JOBS of the week Postdoctoral Fellow – Developmental Hematopoiesis Mount Sinai School of Medicine (Baron Lab) New York, US Postdoctoral Fellow - Differentiation of Embryonic Stem Cells Mount Sinai School of Medicine (Baron Lab) New York, US Chair Professorship University of Colorado Boulder, US Faculty and Post-Doctoral Research Associates Kyushu University Fukuoka Shi, JP Assistant Professor Duke University School of Medicine Durham, US More Science jobs from Chemistry EVENT The 3rd Maghreb Conference on Desalination and Water Treatment 18th to 22nd December 2011 Hammamet, Tunisia More science events from Perspective Top Opportunities in chemistry and materials science for topological insulators and their nanostructures pp845 - 849 Desheng Kong and Yi Cui doi:10.1038/nchem.1171 Topological insulators — insulators or semiconductors with metallic states present at their boundaries — are the 'rising stars' of condensed-matter physics. This Perspective introduces these materials and their properties, and looks at the challenges and opportunities the community faces. Abstract | Full Text | PDF Articles Top Ultrafast energy flow in the wake of solution-phase bimolecular reactions pp850 - 855 David R. Glowacki, Rebecca A. Rose, Stuart J. Greaves, Andrew J. Orr-Ewing and Jeremy N. Harvey doi:10.1038/nchem.1154 The flow of vibrational energy into reactants and out of products plays a critical role in nearly every chemical reaction. Here, a time-resolved ultrafast microscopic map of energy flow is provided for a thermal bimolecular chemical reaction that takes place in dichloromethane, a typical organic solvent. Abstract | Full Text | PDF Chiral information harvesting in dendritic metallopeptides pp856 - 861 Naoki Ousaka, Yuki Takeyama, Hiroki Iida and Eiji Yashima doi:10.1038/nchem.1146 2,2′-bipyridine ligands coordinate to metals to form chiral propeller-like complexes. Now, this chirality is shown to be controlled by the coordination of 2,2′-bipyridine ligands that bear helical oligopeptides, which incorporate chiral amino acids at positions remote from the metal centre. This chirality is further translated, via the metal centre, to other achiral-oligopeptide-containing ligands. Abstract | Full Text | PDF | Chemical compounds See also: News and Views by Clayden Catalytic activity in individual cracking catalyst particles imaged throughout different life stages by selective staining pp862 - 867 Inge L. C. Buurmans, Javier Ruiz-Martínez, William V. Knowles, David van der Beek, Jaap A. Bergwerff, Eelco T. C. Vogt and Bert M. Weckhuysen doi:10.1038/nchem.1148 Insight into the active zeolitic domains of catalyst particles used in fluid catalytic cracking is limited by the particles' complex nature, but is crucial to improving these billion dollar catalysts. Now, a staining method allows confocal fluorescence microscopy to probe within single catalyst particles, and correlate Brønsted acidity distributions to catalytic activity. Abstract | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Chen In situ quantitative imaging of cellular lipids using molecular sensors pp868 - 874 Youngdae Yoon, Park J. Lee, Svetlana Kurilova and Wonhwa Cho doi:10.1038/nchem.1163 Cellular membrane lipids play key roles in cell regulation. Here, an environmentally sensitive fluorophore is attached to a protein that binds to a key signalling lipid to produce a membrane lipid sensor. This strategy allows sensitive, quantitative, spatiotemporal imaging of the lipid concentration in mammalian cells. Abstract | Full Text | PDF A sequence-specific threading tetra-intercalator with an extremely slow dissociation rate constant pp875 - 881 Garen G. Holman, Maha Zewail-Foote, Amy Rhoden Smith, Kenneth A. Johnson and Brent L. Iverson doi:10.1038/nchem.1151 Molecules that bind to DNA for extended periods can modulate its transcription or other biological processes. Kinetic studies on the non-covalent complex formed by a threading tetra-intercalator and a DNA double-helix have now revealed a multi-step association, and a particularly slow dissociation leading to sequence specificity and a 16-day half-life. Abstract | Full Text | PDF | Chemical compounds See also: News and Views by Urbach Direct observation of disulfide isomerization in a single protein pp882 - 887 Jorge Alegre-Cebollada, Pallav Kosuri, Jaime Andrés Rivas-Pardo and Julio M. Fernández doi:10.1038/nchem.1155 Multiple redox reaction pathways exist in proteins containing several cysteines. A technique termed mechanical uncaging is now demonstrated, allowing the release of a single reactive cysteine within a protein and the unequivocal observation of subsequent thiol/disulfide exchanges. Mechanical uncaging of reactive groups is useful for studying chemical kinetics in a synchronized manner. Abstract | Full Text | PDF See also: News and Views by Chou & Buehler Ultrafast vibrational energy transfer at the water/air interface revealed by two-dimensional surface vibrational spectroscopy pp888 - 893 Zhen Zhang, Lukasz Piatkowski, Huib J. Bakker and Mischa Bonn doi:10.1038/nchem.1158 At water's surface, its network of hydrogen-bonds is abruptly interrupted, conferring distinct properties on interfacial water from bulk water. Understanding aqueous interfaces is essential for many environmental, technological and biophysical systems, and now the pathways and rates of energy transfer at the water/air interface are elucidated using a surface-specific ultrafast spectroscopic technique. Abstract | Full Text | PDF Enantioselective preparation and chemoselective cross-coupling of 1,1-diboron compounds pp894 - 899 Jack Chang Hung Lee, Robert McDonald and Dennis G. Hall doi:10.1038/nchem.1150 Stereoselective Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reactions involving non-benzylic secondary alkylboronates are notoriously challenging. Here, an enantioselective synthesis of 1,1-diboronyl compounds using asymmetric conjugate borylation, followed by chemoselective mono cross-coupling with inversion at the diboron centre, is used to produce highly enantioenriched benzylic or allylic boronates, which themselves are useful reagents for a number of processes. Abstract | Full Text | PDF | Chemical compounds In Your Element Top Meteoric calcium p900 John M. C. Plane doi:10.1038/nchem.1172 Calcium is found throughout the solar system, the Earth's crust and oceans, and is an essential constituent of cells, shells and bones — yet it is curiously scarce in the upper atmosphere. John Plane ponders on this 25-year-old mystery. Full Text | PDF Top Advertisement Stay connected to Nature Chemistry. Follow us on Twitter.   Natureevents is a fully searchable, multi-disciplinary database designed to maximise exposure for events organisers. The contents of the Natureevents Directory are now live. The digital version is available here. Find the latest scientific conferences, courses, meetings and symposia on natureevents.com. For event advertising opportunities across the Nature Publishing Group portfolio please contact natureevents@nature.com More Nature Events

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