Excited by the prospect of future missions to the Jupiter system, Bruce Gibb explores the chemistry of Jupiter’s moons and wonders whether there could be life on Europa.

John Steele and Stephen Wallace discuss recent advances in the chemical and biotechnological synthesis of the prolific platform chemical adipic acid.

Lack of standardization, transparency and interaction creates information gaps in scientific publications. Through strategies such as voluntary information management, standardization of reaction set-ups, and smart screening approaches, this Perspective gives guidelines on how to improve data management in publications reporting chemical reactions, focusing on reproducibility, standardization and evaluation of synthetic transformations.

Nanopore label-free sequencing of DNA and RNA at the single-molecule level offers rapid readout, high accuracy, low cost and portability. This Review surveys technologies underpinning commercial and academic nanopore sequencing, and examines how underlying biochemical advances can fuel future developments in nanopore-based protein sequencing.

The synthesis of cationic all-metal aromatic systems without covalent functionalization remains an underexplored area in chemistry. Now a tetracationic [Bi₄]⁴⁺ featuring all-metal σ-aromaticity has been stabilized through a supramolecular approach relying on dianionic calix[4]pyrrolato indiumbromide shells. This planar rhomboid represents the global minimum for 16 valence electron systems.

The chemistry of beryllium, one of the periodic table’s lightest elements, remains poorly understood. Now, a nucleophilic beryllium complex with a highly polarized Be–Be bond has been prepared—this compound could be seen as a mixed-oxidation state Be(0)/Be(II) complex. The Be–Be bond is cleaved upon reaction with an organic substrate.

Engineering new ligands that specifically target multiple G protein-coupled receptors with desired activity profiles requires time-consuming and expensive cycles of design-make-test-analyse work. Now it has been shown that limited experimental data can be used to train sophisticated machine learning models to accurately predict the activity of previously uncharacterized peptide ligand variants.

Understanding how membrane-bound styrene oxide isomerase (SOI) catalyses the Meinwald rearrangement—a Lewis-acid-catalysed isomerization of an epoxide to a carbonyl compound—can be useful as SOI represents a green alternative to chemical synthesis. Here, the catalytic mechanism of SOI was determined using cryo-EM, EPR spectroscopy, mutagenesis, functional assays and docking experiments.

Calcium difluoride is a source of fluorochemicals, but the reactivity of Ca–F moieties is not well understood. Now a library of molecular Ca–F complexes featuring unique structural motifs has been synthesized, including via fluorochemical defluorination. Studies of mono- and dinuclear systems provided structure–activity relationships for E–F bond formation.

Dimetallocenes are a narrow class of compounds represented by the homobimetallic examples dizincocene and diberyllocene. Now a heterobimetallic dimetallocene featuring lithium and aluminium centres has been synthesized. The Al–Li bond is shown to cleave upon reaction with N-heterocyclic carbenes and heteroallenes.

John Steele and Stephen Wallace discuss recent advances in the chemical and biotechnological synthesis of the prolific platform chemical adipic acid.

Excited by the prospect of future missions to the Jupiter system, Bruce Gibb explores the chemistry of Jupiter’s moons and wonders whether there could be life on Europa.

Serotonin is known by many names — in science as 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) or enteramine, and in popular culture as the ‘feel good’ chemical or the ‘happy hormone’. Cameron Movassaghi and Anne Andrews discuss the knowns and unknowns of this well-studied yet elusive neurotransmitter.

Becoming an assistant professor brings with it several challenges, one of which is developing new relationships that can be professionally and personally beneficial. Shira Joudan reflects on getting to know people at a new institution, having different types of relationships, and how they help with happiness and success.

Ciro Romano, Jack I. Mansell, and David J. Procter have explored the versatility and selectivity of samarium diiodide, and its use as a radical relay catalyst.

Thomas Kruse and Søren Østergaard reflect on the development of the GLP-1 analogue, semaglutide, which is reshaping peptide therapeutics in type 2 diabetes, weight management, and beyond.