The introduction of fluorine and fluorine-containing groups, which is still a challenge, is tackled by T. Ritter et al. in a Review in this issue. How do new methods of fluorination compare against conventional ones? The Highlights deal with flexible calcite mesocrystals (D. Gebauer) and the biological activity of alkynes (C. Arkona and J. Rademann). A. Fernández-Ramos doubts the results of D. Jose and A. Datta regarding tunneling during proton transfer in thiotropolene; the latter defends the findings.
In the Communications section, P. Perlmutter et al. show that 14-helical N-acetyl β3-peptides spontaneously self-assemble in a unique head-to-tail fashion to form fibers from solution (see picture). A. Jerschow et al. introduce a new method for the measurement of NMR Z-spectra for studying chemical exchange phenomena in homogeneous systems. H. Guo et al. succeeded in a direct synthesis of H2O2 from the elements by using a plasma method.
