Angewandte Chemie International Edition

Arnesano, Fabio; Scintilla, Simone; Natile, Giovanni

doi: 10.1002/anie.200790239pmid: N/A

The catching of insects …︁. ‥ by the carnivore sundew plant (cover picture, background) can be considered a model of cisplatin uptake by tumor cells mediated by the copper transporter protein Ctr1. As G. Natile and co‐workers describe in the Communication on page 9062 ff., the extracellular methionine‐rich motifs of Ctr1, like the sticky tentacles on the sundew's leaves, entangle the platinum moiety and induce formation of an endocytic vesicle, which also resembles the trap cavity formed by the bending of the sundew's tentacles over its prey. The background photo is by Pavel Kraśenskyý.

Jang, Ji‐Hyun; Dendukuri, Dhananjay; Hatton, T. Alan; Thomas, Edwin L.; Doyle, Patrick S.

doi: 10.1002/anie.200790240pmid: N/A

Stop‐flow interference lithography inside a poly(dimethylsiloxane) microfluidic device is described by E. L. Thomas, P. S. Doyle, and co‐workers in their Communication on page 9027 ff. This new route enables the fabrication of large numbers of three‐dimensionally patterned, mask‐defined, polymeric particles with sub‐micrometer features. A wide range of monomers can be used to create complex overall particle shapes that have designed interior architectures and porosities.

doi: 10.1002/anie.200790241pmid: N/A

Alavi, Saman; Ripmeester, John A.

doi: 10.1002/anie.200790242pmid: N/A

doi: 10.1002/anie.200790243pmid: N/A

Zhu, Jieping

doi: 10.1002/anie.200785522pmid: N/A

Mealli, Carlo; Rauchfuss, Thomas B.

doi: 10.1002/anie.200703413pmid: 17963205

Not just a pretty face: A new structural model for the (NiFe) hydrogenases (see structure, pale green Ni, dark green Ru, pink S, red H) is also functional: it activates H2 to give a bimetallic hydride and H+. This advance will encourage reinvestigation of the heterolysis of the implied H2 adduct. Questions arise regarding NiII low‐spin to high‐spin interconversion and reclassification of (FeFe) versus (NiFe) hydrogenase models.

Garcia‐Garibay, Miguel A.

doi: 10.1002/anie.200702443pmid: 17939145

Molecular musclemen: Local stress from organic solid‐state photoreactions may be released in a catastrophic manner, causing single crystals to fragment (see picture, bottom). Alternatively, crystals in topotactic reactions (see picture, top) release the stress by changing size and shape. These mechanical processes may be used to design photoactuators capable of performing work at the nano‐ to micrometer scales.

Palmans, Anja R. A.; Meijer, E. W.

doi: 10.1002/anie.200701285pmid: 17935098

The quest to understand the origin of chirality in biological systems has evoked an intense search for nonlinear effects in catalysis and pathways to amplify slight enantiomeric excesses in racemates to give optically pure molecules. The amplification of chirality in polymeric systems as a result of cooperative processes has been intensely investigated. Ten years ago, this effect was shown for the first time in noncovalent dynamic supramolecular systems. Since then, it has become clear that a subtle interplay of noncovalent interactions such as hydrogen‐bonding, π–π stacking, and hydrophobic interactions is also sufficient to observe amplification of chirality in small molecules. Here we summarize the results obtained over the past decade and the general guidelines we can deduce from them. Predicting amplification of chirality is still impossible, but it appears to be a balance between different types of interactions, the formation of an intrinsically chiral object, and cooperative aggregation processes.

Chu, Liang‐Yin; Utada, Andrew S.; Shah, Rhutesh K.; Kim, Jin‐Woong; Weitz, David A.

doi: 10.1002/anie.200701358pmid: 17847154

A drop within a drop within a drop: A microfluidic technique is used to generate highly controlled multiple emulsions (see picture). The high degree of control and scalability afforded by this method makes it a flexible and promising route for engineering designer emulsions and microcapsules with multiphase structures. Moreover, its generality will enable fabrication of novel materials containing complex internal structures.