RSC members, authors, referees and readers met at three separate events on three continents in as many weeks, recently.

On 15 August, 120 delegates gathered at a reception in the Arabella Sheraton Grand Hotel in Cape Town at the 37th International Conference of Coordination Chemistry, to celebrate weekly publication of Dalton Transactions. Following short welcoming speeches by Andrew Scott, RSC Membership Sales and Marketing Manager, and RSC Council Member, Professor Paul O'Brien, the Chairman of the Dalton Transactions Editorial Board, Professor Paul Walton, spoke about some of the journal's successes so far. 'Dalton Transactions continues to go from strength to strength. It is now the highest ranked European journal for inorganic chemistry,' he explained, 'moving to weekly publication in January this year confirms its leading position and we're delighted to have you celebrate this exciting development with us'.

A week later in Budapest, newly appointed RSC President, Professor Jim Feast, and RSC Chief Executive, Dr Richard Pike, hosted a joint reception with the GDCh at the 1st European Chemistry Congress in Budapest. Among the guests were representatives from the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS, formerly FECS) and international figures from the world of chemical sciences.

A popular annual event, the RSC Reception at the 232nd National Meeting & Exposition meeting took place on 10th September in the Grand Ballroom at the Hilton San Francisco. Addressing the ACS dignitaries, RSC members and other guests present, Professor Jim Feast introduced some new products in the RSCs portfolio and made an exclusive announcement regarding the RSC's policy on Open Access publishing.

Find out more in the next issue of Essential Elements.

China is a hotbed for natural product related sciences, a fact demonstrated in the latest issue of Natural Product Reports. This special issue, guest edited by Professor R X Tan, Nanjing, focuses on 'Natural Product Chemistry in China' and brings together review articles from well established Chinese laboratories undertaking research in this vast field.

China is a country rich in plants and microbe species that cultivates a remarkable diversity of natural products; therefore it is no surprise that traditional Chinese medicine has used extracts from these plants to treat many diseases and that research into natural products remains important.

The comprehensive reviews in this special issue cover the areas of phytochemicals; the bioactivity of the Liliaceae steroidal alkaloids; microorganisms as a source of biologically active natural products; mass production of important natural products and the development of plant tissue culture protocol for plant-derived medicines. 

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From popular science books such as Lust and Love: Is it more than chemistry? to Protein-Carbohydrate Interactions in Infectious Diseases the RSC publishes books for all levels of readership and interest.

The new edition of Nucleic Acids in Chemistry and Biology has just been published. This popular undergraduate textbook has been thoroughly revised and updated, with expanded coverage on reactions and interactions with proteins and drugs. 'This book uniquely provides an introduction to both the chemistry and biology of nucleic acids, and thus will be of use to a very wide group of students and researchers. I can recommend it highly.' Stephen Neidle, Professor at the School of Pharmacy, University of London.

Another textbook recently published, Chemistry and Medicines  provides an introduction to the subject of medicinal chemistry with additional sections on drugs to combat infectious diseases and cancers.

The RSC Biomolecular Sciences Series is a collection of research level books covering all areas of the biological sciences. Titles include: Exploiting Chemical Diversity for Drug Discovery and Structural Biology of Membrane Proteins. Other high level books include Dendrimers in Medicine and Biotechnology and Metallochemistry of Neurodegeneration: Biological, Chemical and Genetic Aspects.

Find out more about RSC books at