Active but unselective : Nucleoside triphosphates possessing glucose moieties (such as those depicted) instead of the natural furanose rings are recognised by the active sites of polymerases. Polymerases therefore seem to be very unspecific in their recognition patterns.
Zeptomole detector: A highly sensitive giant‐magnetoresistive chip and FeCo nanoparticles can be used to linearly detect 600–4500 copies of streptavidin. Under unoptimized conditions, this system also detects human IL‐6 with a sensitivity 13‐times higher than that of standard ELISA techniques.
No copper needed : In recent years, a large number of metal‐free click reactions have been reported based on thiol‐ene radical additions, Diels–Alder reactions, and Michael additions. In this Minireview, special attention is given to the advantages and limitations of the different methods to evaluate whether they have the potential to surpass the overwhelming success of the copper(I)‐catalyzed azide‐alkyne cycloaddition.
Nanochemical printmaking : Colloidal lithography paves a powerful nanochemical way for patterning on planar substrates and microparticles. The feature size can easily be scaled down to 100 nm by reducing the diameter of the microspheres and the feature shape diversified by the crystalline structure of a colloidal crystal mask, the mask etching time, the incidence angle of the vapor beam, and the mask registry (the azimuth angle of the vapor beam).
A POM to remember : Hexanuclear FeIII polyoxometalate (POM) single‐molecule magnets (see structure) can be noncovalently assembled on the surface of single‐wall carbon nanotubes. Complementary characterization techniques (see TEM image and magnetic hysteresis loops) demonstrate the integrity and bistability of the individual molecules, which could be used to construct single‐molecule memory devices.
Amphiphilic hybrid materials are formed from polymer‐coated semiconductor nanoparticles that simulate a surfactant‐like response (see picture). The strength and density of the surface coating are the key assembling forces driving a transition from single particles to cylindrical or vesicular superstructures.
Making ends meet : The L ‐gulopyranosyl trichloroacetimidate and 1,6‐anhydro‐2,3‐di‐O‐benzyl‐β‐L ‐gulopyranose, efficiently derived from L ‐ascorbic acid, were individually used as a starting unit and an elongation unit to prepare L ‐guluronic acid linked alginate oligosaccharides in excellent α selectivity and in good yields.
