carbon ring hooked up

I don't write about real chemistry very often these days, but it's always great to hear about the creative (supra)molecular architectures and new allotropes of carbon developed in Harry Anderson's lab here in Oxford. The latest news from his lab, published in Science magazine this week, is the first molecular carbon ring stable enough to be investigated in solution by normal spectroscopy methods. Previous carbon rings were produced by atom manipulation on solid surfaces, a method requiring extremely low temperatures (see here and here).

I wrote a news story for Chemistry World about this new work, which is out now:

Ring of pure carbon stabilised by its catenane connections

Chemistry World 15.8.2025

I believe it is freely accessible as long as you haven't used up your monthly quota of free articles from CW.

The three macrocycles helped to stabilise the C48 molecule, allowing the first isolation in solution of this class of molecule. Image source: © Yueze Gao et al 2025

PS It looks like I forgot to blog some of the CW news stories of recent years, I'll list the missing ones here so I have them somewhere on this blog in case I ever get round to updating my publications list.

Proteins behind diatoms’ intricate nanoscale-patterned shells revealed
Chemistry World 5.1.2023

Light-harvesting wheel reinvented by chemists copying bacterium
Chemistry World 7.7. 2020

Hydrogens seen crystal clear in small molecules
Chemistry World 31.5. 2016

For a complete list of all my pieces in Chemistry World, see my profile page.

dances with diatoms

German publications in November and December cover foaming proteins, dance your PhD, chemical elements you can by from Holland & Barrett, boron-boron triple bonds, and diatoms. Phew. I won't even try to conjure up a connection between these, apart from the byline. So here goes:

Tierischer Eischnee und andere Schäume
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 2013, 61, 1227-1229
(a feature in English covering the same ground is here)

Ausgeforscht: Elemente für den Hausgebrauch
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 2013, 61, 1307

Ausgeforscht: Tanze deine Diss
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 2013, 61, 1191

Kieselalgen: Weder Tier noch Pflanze, aber klimarelevant
Chemie in unserer Zeit 47, 368-374, DOI: 10.1002/ciuz.201300621
abstract and restricted access to PDF download

Dreifachbindungen: Bor-Chemie im Aufwind
Chemie in unserer Zeit 47, 340
abstract and restricted access to PDF download

mysteries of diatoms

I have covered the research relating to the silica shells of diatoms - their morphogenesis and use in bio-nanotechnology - for many years, but have now for the first time taken a look at the wider context of diatom biology and its links to climate change and other earth systems. The resulting epic feature article is out in today's issue of Current Biology:

Current Biology, Volume 22, Issue 15, R581-R585, 7 August 2012 doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.07.041

HTML text Free access to PDF file (NB: my features remain on free access only until the next issue appears, i.e. normally 2 weeks, sometimes 3, and they return to free access a year after publication)

photo: Wikipedia