Some fundamental questions in chemical reactivity

This paper provides an overview of recent progress on some fundamental questions in chemical reactivity. The following issues are emphasized: (1) the choice of electronic structure level for dynamics study; (2) Diels-Alder reactions; (3) combined molecular orbital/molecular mechanics methods; (4) solvent effects; (5) S_N2 reactions; (6) dynamics simulations; (7) proton-transfer reactions; and (8) femtochemistry. Received: 25 November 1997 / Accepted: 23 December 1997