Our August issue went live today and so I thought I’d give you all a quick tour and point out some notable content and a few ‘firsts’. The issue includes a focus on small molecules that bind to DNA, specifically metal complexes. All of the content that makes up the focus (the editorial, an interview with Claudia Turro, an Article from Jackie Barton and co-workers, an Article from Christine Cardin and co-workers, and a News & Views article from Stephen Neidle that looks at those two research papers) is free until August 23rd. And if that’s not enough, Christine Cardin has posted a short video to YouTube about her Article.

Elsewhere in the issue (and all of this is subscriber only – sorry!) there is a guest Thesis article from Jean-François Lutz, who suggests that chemists should slow down a little in the pace of their research. Here’s a short excerpt to whet your appetite:

The quantity of new information published every week in chemistry and closely related disciplines has become so great that today a rapid glance at table-of-content graphics has often replaced in-depth reading of articles themselves. A recurrent question in this context is whether all of this literature is necessary? It seems obvious that many newly published articles are routine studies that are often a repetition, with small variations, of existing concepts.

In addition, there is also a Review article from Dean Toste and co-workers about the use of chiral anions in asymmetric catalysis, lots of great research Articles on a wide range of topics (total synthesis, organic electronics, synthetic methodology, electrochemical sensing, reaction dynamics, and more), and another competition-winning In Your Element essay — this one from Michael Tarselli on nitrogen (this should be free to nature.com registrants).

And now, those ‘firsts’. We’ve reviewed books and TV shows before in the Books & Arts section, but in this issue we review an app for the first time. Jon T. Njardarson reviews SANROS (Strategic Applications of Named Reactions in Organic Synthesis) by László Kürti & Barbara Czakó. And finally, we have another first in the Blogroll column, written by Paul Bracher. The column includes mentions of Dr Rubidium, Excimer, ScienceGeist, Chemjobber and Derek Lowe. But that’s not the new bit… Paul’s written a blogpost explaining what is somewhat unique about his column (strong language included in that link).

We hope you enjoy the issue!

Stuart

Stuart Cantrill (Chief Editor, Nature Chemistry)

IMAGE: CHRISTINE CARDIN AND JAMES HALL

COVER DESIGN: ALEX WING