“Where do we come from? Where are we headed?”, people often wonder, and not only at the end of a year. The chemical part of this question is addressed by Nobel laureate A. Eschenmoser in his Review on biomolecular structures and the chemistry of life’s origin. In an Essay, S. Balasubramanian discusses the implications of decoding genomes at high speed for science and medicine. The Highlights deal with RNA aptamers (G. Mayer et al.) and magnetochiral effects in amphiphilic porphyrins (J. M. Ribó). In their Editorial, D. Kneißl and H. Schwarz justify why fundamental research needs excellent scientists and its own space.
In the Communications section, W. Jones et al. introduce a cocrystal strategy to tune the luminescence properties of stilbene-type organic solid-state materials. K. A. Jørgensen et al. succeeded in the taming of the Friedel–Crafts reaction for the synthesis of 2,3-dihydrobenzofurans with an organocatalytic approach. H. Roesky et al. describe a stable CSi3P ring cation that barely needs stabilization by its counterion. J.-L. Hou et al. present selective artificial transmembrane proton channels (see picture).
This issue completes the 50th jubilee volume of Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The editorial team and the publishers thank all authors, referees, and readers and wish them happy holidays and a great 2012.
