Have you ever stuffed up a reaction so badly that it was more interesting than the original experiment?

Scientists are very fond of talking about the importance of serendipity in research. This usually means one of two things. The first thing is “sure, my work appears to be incredibly niche and pointless, but don’t discount the possibility that I’ll stumble over a cure for cancer in the rectums of these worms I’m studying”. The second is “sometimes fuck-ups are salvageable, if you keep an open mind”. This paper is the latter sort of serendipity.

We report the development of a novel C-C decoupling reaction mediated by a palladium/bis(phosphine) catalyst system. This methodology is the first of its kind, and allows for the chemoselective scission of Ar-Ar bonds to give aryl halides and arylboronic esters. 

Your bond enthalpy’s beyond compare, you make the best non-stick cookware and we cannot compete with you fluorine.

A novel perfume recipe, which you can smell in the dark.

When budgets tighten, chemists must become creative in how they use their funding. This has become particularly apparent in recent years, as rapid inflation has diminished the value of existing grants. We therefore propose that it is more cost effective to use money directly in reactions than to buy chemicals with it.

If you liked palladium-on-carbon, you’ll love the all-new palladium-on-lemon!

The following article presents alternative strategies for grading undergraduate chemists. In 2024, the practice of assessing students purely on their competence as chemists is antiquated and elitist. We advocate a holistic approach by incorporating publication history, project accessibility, mental health sacrifices and lab coat stain density into an assessment rubric.

A protocol for the synthesis of (+)-eluciferin is reported. This synthesis includes the first example of a Sapkowski-Bóbr-Kurwa reaction between an alkyl aldehyde and a gem-dichloride bearing a pendant carbonylimidazole attached through a Csp3-hybridised cyclopropane linker bearing multiple substituents (Sapkowski-Bóbr-Kurwa reactions between alkyl aldehydes and gem-dichlorides bearing pendant carbonylimidazoles attached through a Csp3-hybridised cyclopropane linker bearing single substituents have of course been previously reported).

We report a quantum leap forward in the field of nanocomputing, with the development of a fully-operational molecular computer. Our device, the DORF4000, contains discreet processing, storage and signal input/output domains, all in a volume smaller than the tip of a pin. To benchmark the DORF4000’s performance, we demonstrate that it is capable of running the video game Doom (1993).

We report the designed, synthesis and activity of a novel photoactivatable glucose derivative: a diazirine-conjugated benzoylated sugar (DiaBeTeS). We show that when cancer cells are treated with diabetes and subsequently irradiated with ultra-high doses of UV, they die.

By combining the domain of Wumbological mappings, the cocaine consumption of unsuccessful day traders, and electron sexuality, this work disproves contemporary notions of the union of the nucleus and atom by proving that all electrons are infinitely repulsed from the nucleus. I also want a density functional named after me. This density functional is named after me.

A novel phenethylxanthine-type stimulant was synthesised in extremis, characterised in vivo and tested in corpore meo. Simple, locally-sourced organic precursors were employed, and the synthesis was conducted in an artisanal camper-van kitchen.