Legacy energy production has generated a climate crisis and left in its wake a history of injustices that have disproportionately impacted marginalized communities. Integrating energy justice into the curricula and research of those who aim to fix this crisis is essential to equip students with the expertise needed to create and implement equitable energy solutions.

In grad school, there is time to focus on learning about your field and your project — and to keep up with the literature. Now, as an assistant professor, Shira Joudan explains how learning science is necessarily different as they manage multiple projects and a busy schedule.

Marinda Westerveld and Rita Petracca describe the current understanding of the biosynthesis of crotonyl-coenzyme A.

Olefin-linked covalent organic frameworks are materials with potential application as organic semiconductors, but their synthesis remains challenging. Now, single-crystal sp²-carbon-linked covalent organic frameworks have been prepared through an imine-to-olefin transformation strategy; the resulting materials feature enhanced room-temperature metal-free ferromagnetism.

Heavier analogues of unsaturated organic molecules are of interest because of their bonding situation and their potential use in synthesis. Now, a Bi(I)-based allyl cation, which can be seen as a heavy congener of all-carbon π-allyl cations, has been reported. This complex serves as a synthon for Bi(I) transfer, enabling access to low-valent organobismuth compounds.

The imbalance in structural tension between crystalline materials and surfactant micelles makes the synthesis of crystalline mesoporous metal–organic frameworks (meso-MOFs) challenging. Now single-crystalline meso-MOFs featuring ordered mesopores have been prepared through the assembly of surfactant micelles and subunits of crystalline MOFs—a process co-mediated by strong and weak acids.

Amino alcohols are essential in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and other applications. Now, using a serine-derived chiral carboxylic acid, an electrocatalytic decarboxylative transformation enables efficient and stereoselective access to diverse amino alcohols. This method is scalable, modular and could offer rapid synthesis of medicinal compounds and key building blocks.

Alkyl amines are found in a wide array of bioactive compounds, making strategies for their synthesis very important. Now, a method has been developed to synthesize tertiary alkyl amines via photoinduced, copper-catalysed nucleophilic substitution of unactivated alkyl halides by secondary alkyl amines, with key copper intermediates elucidated in a detailed mechanistic study.

The cytoskeleton is vital for living organisms. Now an artificial cytoskeleton within amylose-based coacervates stabilized by a terpolymer membrane has been developed using polydiacetylene fibrils to mimic natural cytoskeletal functions. The integration of this artificial cytoskeleton marks an important step in creating artificial cell platforms with enhanced life-like behaviour.

In grad school, there is time to focus on learning about your field and your project — and to keep up with the literature. Now, as an assistant professor, Shira Joudan explains how learning science is necessarily different as they manage multiple projects and a busy schedule.

Marinda Westerveld and Rita Petracca describe the current understanding of the biosynthesis of crotonyl-coenzyme A.

Legacy energy production has generated a climate crisis and left in its wake a history of injustices that have disproportionately impacted marginalized communities. Integrating energy justice into the curricula and research of those who aim to fix this crisis is essential to equip students with the expertise needed to create and implement equitable energy solutions.

Jakob Farnung and Brenda Schulman detail chemical diversification that endows the protein ubiquitin with many important cellular functions.

About two thirds of western society are extroverts, but the contemplative nature of science means that this is not true of the academic population. Bruce Gibb discusses extraversion and introversion in science and asks whether the movement towards larger projects involving teams of scientists is making it harder for introverts and for disruptive discoveries.

Much natural-product-based drug discovery has depended on the practices of Indigenous Peoples, who have sometimes invested centuries of care into the cultivation and use of plant or fungal matter. However, the contributions of the original discoverers can be lost as the natural products are developed into pharmaceutical products.