In this issue, D. Faivre and T. Ukmar Godec review the biomineralization of iron oxides in organisms that range from bacteria to mollusks. What properties and functionalities do these biominerals offer that abiotically formed materials, made of the same mineral, usually lack? In an Essay, P. Karen discusses the definition of the oxidation state. The Highlights deal with the manipulation of DNA and RNA based on a bacterial defense system (A. Rentmeister) and expanded porphyrins (F. D’Souza).

In the Communications section, Y. Toker et al. show how to directly measure the isomerization barrier of the isolated retinal chromophore (see picture). J. Breu et al. succeeded in the encapsulation of functional organic compounds in nanoglasses for optically anisotropic coatings. M. Ogasawara et al. report on the enantioselective synthesis of macrocyclic heterobiaryl derivatives by ring-closing metathesis and I. Manners et al. describe iron-catalyzed dehydropolymerization as a convenient route to poly(phosphinoboranes).

• Angewandte Chemie 16/2015: Iron is Hot,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54 (16).