This issue's outside front cover is provided by Norman Voyer and Eric Biron at Université Laval, Québec, Canada. Recognising and binding one specific DNA sequence in a whole genome is like searching for a needle in a haystack. In their paper, the authors design and synthesise a series of new DNA-binding peptidic nanostructures to try to achieve this goal. 

In the Perspective, which is a hot article and is also featured on the inside front cover, A. P. De Silva and colleagues at Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, discuss how molecules can display logic, sense, numeracy and utility and communicate with humans using light signals. 

The Emerging Area by Toshifumi Takeuchi and Takayuki Hishiya at Kobe University, Japan, discusses the recent developments in molecular imprinting for proteins. Currently bio-macromolecules such as antibodies and enzymes are mainly employed for protein recognition purposes. However, such bio-macromolecules are sometimes difficult to find and/or produce, therefore, receptor-like synthetic materials such as protein-imprinted polymers have been intensively studied as substitutes for natural receptors. Recent advances in protein imprinting shown in this Emerging Area demonstrate the possibility of this technique as a future technology of protein recognition.