National University of Singapore (NUS) chemists have developed an “anchoring-borrowing” strategy, combined with facet engineering, to develop a new class of artful single-atom catalysts (ASACs). These catalysts are formed by anchoring foreign single atoms onto specific facets of reducible support materials, allowing them to bypass the traditional oxidative addition step in cross-coupling reactions, which are widely used in the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

In the past several decades, significant progress has been made in controlling molecular chirality, as evidenced by the several Nobel Prizes in chemistry awarded in this area, particularly for advancements in the asymmetric catalytic synthesis of molecules with central and axial chirality. However, the exploration of new types of chirality has been largely stagnant for more than half a century, likely due to the complexity and challenges inherent in this field. Prof Li and Liang’s groups at Texas Tech University present the discovery of a novel type of chirality—staircase chirality.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/acta-pharmaceutica-sinica-b/vol/15/issue/3

Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (APSB) was founded with the goal of creating a global high-level forum centred around drug discovery and pharmaceutical research/application. APSB was included by Chemical Abstracts in 2011, accepted by PubMed Central in 2015, indexed by Science Citation Index in 2017 and has evolved to become one of the most important international journals in the field of pharmaceutical sciences.

Pushing the limits of structured light, Harvard applied physicists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences report a new type of optical vortex beam that not only twists as it travels but also changes in different parts at different rates to create unique patterns. The way the light behaves resembles spiral shapes common in nature. 

In the Arnold Mathijssen Lab at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania, researchers used a gooseneck kettle, coffee grinder, and a pour-over setup alongside precise measurements and high-speed analysis to study the fluid dynamics and mechanics of coffee brewing to uncover ways to maximize flavor with fewer grounds. The findings could help researchers understand fluid dynamics.

A team of Rice researchers reported the first direct observation of a surprising quantum phenomenon predicted over half a century ago known as a superradiant phase transition, which occurs when two groups of quantum particles begin to fluctuate in a coordinated, collective way without any external trigger, forming a new state of matter.