Site-specific attachment of a programmable motif, such as a synthetic nucleic acid tag, on a target protein can facilitate functional studies of proteins in cells or modulation of protein activity. Now, a small genetically encoded peptide enables the templated incorporation of a peptide nucleic acid tag onto membrane proteins in live cells.

Michelle Francl wonders if scientists ought to pen poetry.

Storytelling can be a powerful educational tool to help address equity in the chemical sciences.

Mimicking biosynthetic pathways can provide access to medicinally important natural products, but generating the reactive species used by nature can often be difficult. Now, a photoredox-based strategy has been developed to access a reactive radical intermediate postulated to be involved in complex lignan biosynthesis.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-020-00622-w

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-020-00613-x.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-020-0539-8.

As a consequence of their high instability, main-group carbonyl complexes are rare — only a few have been detected, typically in low-temperature matrices. Now, two silicon–carbonyl complexes have been isolated using innovative substituent patterns at the Si centre; their reactivity resembles that of their transition-metal counterparts.

Artificial photosynthesis represents a promising method of generating hydrogen for our clean and sustainable energy needs. Now, photocatalytic nanofibres have been developed that incorporate photosensitizers and catalysts into well-defined self-assembled structures for efficient hydrogen production.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Interactions between two bodies that are both attractive and repulsive — such as predators chasing prey — are common in nature. Similar chasing behaviour has now been engineered in self-propelling microdroplets and controlled through fundamental physical and chemical mechanisms.

The manner in which adjacent sheets stack in layered covalent organic frameworks largely influences their material properties, including chemical stability, crystallinity and porosity. The layer stacking of COF has now been probed locally, showing disorder that is not detected through long-range characterization.

If you feel like shifting your attention away from what’s happening here on planet Earth in 2020 for a moment, join Bruce C. Gibb on a tour through the chemistry of the largest planet in the Solar System.

Ayanna Jones, Samantha Mensah and Devin Swiner, three of the #BlackInChem co-founders, talk to Nature Chemistry about the origins, goals, initiatives and joy of this movement.

It’s generally assumed that primitive forms of cellular life arose from nucleic acids and peptides compartmentalized within vesicles — all underpinned by a non-enzymatic protometabolism. Three studies now provide new insights into the ancient chemistry that may have supported early biology.

It is far from certain how simple chemical reactions became interconnected networks that gave rise to life on early Earth. Exploring the possible ways in which this could have occurred is an active area of research and a collection of articles in this issue consider what chemical steps may have been taken on the path towards life as we know it today.

The #ScienceTwitter community was recently treated to a virtual campaign under the hashtags #BlackInChem and #BlackChemistsWeek. This event highlighted past and present contributions from Black people in the field and offered unique opportunities for networking, mentorship, and recognition, say Abraham Beyene and Priera Panescu.

Labelling proteins at internal sites holds promise for generating novel protein conjugates in a programmable fashion. Now, a chemoenzymatic approach, dubbed LACE, enables the site-specific modification of recombinant proteins that contain a short genetically encoded tag.