JACS 2011, 133, 13276–13279. (DOI: 10.1021/ja2050343)

What could be more suitable to finish off 2011 with than some serious fireworks?

Also, there is a little more to it than a picture of a sexy structure. Advanced organic compounds as active materials in semiconductor applications, such as OLEDs and solar cells, […]

Two questions to all chemists in all areas worldwide:

1) How would you spend the rest of your life if you suddenly became financially independent for good? Would you still do chemistry? How, where, when?

2) What amount in USD today would be enough to make you absolutely certain that you never ever had to […]

Just out is a new recipe for ynimines from the corresponding free imines.

Org. Lett. ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ol2032152)

Having worked quite a lot with imines, I am familiar with how tricky conversions of this type can be. OK, ynimines are probably not the hottest targets for any application, but if you […]

Ckellz over at New Reactions just posted the most awesome write-up about a new oxidant ‘affectionately dubbed Bobbitt’s Salt’ and its applications in simple, effective and selective oxidations of alcohols to aldehydes, among several other fantastic things. Before you read any further, I urge everyone to check out the original post. […]

Spotted in March’s, 5th ed., p 320.

If your local dealer insists on cutting your dope with sugar, you should be aware that there is a fix for it now.

Specifically, if the sugar is pure D-ribose and the desired dope is (—)-cocaine, which is the natural stuff indeed, you can convert the former into product with excellent stereoselectivity and an impressive […]

The original post has been retracted for non-scientific reasons.

Retractions of scientific articles in general appears to be a hot topic. For a bizarre and completely unrelated story about the retraction of a retraction (!), see here.

Important message to all particle physicists: You can stop looking.

I have found your particle, the God particle, a.k.a. the Higgs boson – the particle. It was hiding in plain sight all along. Everything is beginning to make sense now. We can soon enjoy a grand unified theory of everything.

The […]

Do you know what I miss most about studying? Chalk. It’s been almost a decade since we last met. There’s something eternally awesome about chemical structures drawn in white chalk on a black background.

I didn’t like it when everybody began switching over to whiteboards. In fact, I have come to hate these. I don’t […]

The time is ripe for a short chemistry quiz. In fact, a very short one – it’s only one question long. We used to traumatize undergraduates with this one towards the end of the first organic chemistry lab course. I can’t remember if a student ever got it right, and I’m certainly not sure whether […]