A magazine providing a snapshot of the latest developments across the chemical sciences.
Issue 3
Humic substances
Interactions with humic substances have a strong influence on the transport of heavy metals and radionuclides in the environment. Nick Bryan at the University of Manchester, UK, and colleagues, have used a simple chemical transport model to predict the behaviour of metal ions and humates simultaneously in laboratory columns. The model has the potential to be used to make predictions at the field scale, for example, in assessing the long-term performance of radioactive disposal sites.
Golden wonder
An unusual and unexpected linear polymeric gold compound has been discovered by a team of researchers from the UK, Germany and the US, led by Carl Redshaw and William Kaska. While bromide and chloride analogues of isocyanide gold(i) halides were both found to have zigzag 'sawhorse' structures, the iodide forms a linear chain polymer with alternating anion/cation units. The team believes this ease of synthesis of gold frameworks opens up the possibility of making nanoframeworks of gold atoms.
Probing the transition state
Daniel Neumark at the University of California at Berkeley, US, brings together experimental and theoretical work on the spectroscopy of transition states (TS). Neumark highlights TS spectroscopy via negative ion photodetachment and its application to reactions involving bimolecular collisions, unimolecular isomerisation and clusters. The technique probes the TS vibrational structure and can also be used to study reactant van der Waals wells. Such characterisation of the TS provides a deeper understanding of the chemical reactivity of many systems
Improving radiotherapy
Understanding the effects of radiation on the human cell is essential for the development of drugs and improvement of radiotherapy. The oxidative damage of the DNA tends to be clustered because of the short lifetimes of the highly reactive radical species involved. By developing a model system and using mild reducing agents, Jamie Milligan and his colleagues at the University of California at San Diego, US, investigate the reactivity of the radical species and the potential to reverse the damage caused by the ionising radiation.
Essential Elements
Chemistry World Entrepreneur of the Year
David Haddleton, chemistry professor at Warwick University, has won the 2004 Chemistry World Entrepreneur of the year award.
RSC award for synthetic inorganic chemist
Christopher C. 'Kit' Cummins, chemistry professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been awarded the inaugural Dalton Transactions lectureship.
Look out for the second in the series of ChemComm 40th Anniversary Articles, which is published this month
Research Highlights
New drugs could be on their way after a fortuitous discovery
Keeping chirality under control
Inorganic layers hold drug molecules in place
Luminescence of tethered ruthenium complexes detects self-structuration
Illuminating the inside of cancer cells
Fluorescence studies show up zinc complexes in human cancer cells
Switching chirality in liquid crystals
Magnetic fields have been used to flip the chirality of liquid crystals
Crystals of helical polymers are helping to understand their own structures
Elemental analysis goes organic
The possibility of detecting organic compounds by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been opened up by a team of UK scientists
Japanese researchers are a step closer to developing biocompatible liquid crystals for use in membranes or sensors
Evenly-sized silver colloids have been produced in a single simple step
The path of least bacterial resistance
The search is on for alternative treatments to combat bacterial infections that have become resistant to antibiotics
The way that molecules arrange themselves as solids can be changed with just a drop of solvent
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