The softer side of science

Soft matter - what is it, and just what area of science does it cover? Nobel Prize winner and 'founding father' of soft matter research, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, offers his views on the subject in the first issue of the new RSC journal of the same name.   

Launching this month, Soft Matter aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform for the exchange of information and discussion between researchers working at the fringes of traditional disciplines (such as chemistry, physics, materials science and biology), who have a particular interest in soft materials.   

Papers in the first issue demonstrate the diversity of research already underway at these interfaces - ranging from the switching of polymer brushes from soft to 'hard' matter, modelling of the flow of complex fluids in channels, the use of gels in art conservation, and the use of microfluidic devices to formulate double emulsions.   

'By bringing together scientists from different disciplines, we hope not only to promote communication . but to see further growth of the area as a whole' state Ullrich Steiner and Carol Stanier (Soft Matter editorial board chair and editor, respectively) in the first issue editorial, 'Soft Matter is the future home of soft matter research'. 

•  Read the first issue of Soft Matter and judge for yourself   

RSC journal scores Top Ten hit

A paper detailing a new breed of organocatalyst used in asymmetric reactions, published in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (OBC)¹, is among the Chemical Abstracts Service top ten most requested articles in the first 3 months of 2005. The new proline-based catalysts, discovered by Steven Ley's research group at the University of Cambridge, UK, perform as well as traditional organocatalyst systems but are needed in much smaller quantities. The new catalysts can also be used in a wider range of solvents, making them much easier to work with.       

The interest in the paper, which is freely available on the OBC website, reflects the increasing number of research groups that are working in this area. The quest for new and more effective reaction pathways is producing a wealth of published material, and a recent article by Benjamin List², from the Max-Planck Institute, Germany, provides a timely overview of the area.       

• To read these papers for free, or to find out more about OBC visit the OBC homepage   

References

1 Org. Biomol. Chem., 2005, 3, 84 (DOI: 10.1039/b414742a)

2 Org. Biomol. Chem., 2005, 3, 719   (DOI: 10.1039/b415217b) 

And finally......

Nobel prize winner Ryoji Noyori from Nagoya University, Japan, is the author of the third in a series of 40th Anniversary Articles in ChemComm.¹ 

'In the 21st century, the field of chemistry will face more than just academic challenges,' he says. Urging chemists to practise 'practical elegance' by using truly efficient catalytic systems, he maintains that 'our ability to devise straightforward and practical chemical syntheses is indispensable to the survival of our species'. Noyori was previously the subject of a Profile in Green Chemistry.² 

• Find out more at the ChemComm homepage 

References

1 Chem. Commun., 2005, 1807  (DOI: 10.1039/b502713f)

2 Green Chem., 2003, 5, G37  (DOI: 10.1039/b305339n)