Which analytical and preparative methods enable the design of materials inspired by nature? This question is discussed by A. M. Kushner and Z. Guan in a Review; they focus on natural and biomimetic elastic materials. The Highlights in this issue deal with low-valent silicon in antiaromatic four-membered rings (P. Jutzi) and the production of colloidal resin polymer and carbon spheres (A.-H. Lu et al.).
In the Communications section, H. Waldmann et al. describe the gold-catalyzed synthesis of benzoxocines by an 8-endo-dig cyclization. K. Ishii et al. report on the magneto-chiral dichroism of organic compounds, namely porphyrin J-aggregates. H. Fei and S. R. J. Oliver succeeded in the synthesis of copper hydroxide ethanedisulfonate, a layered material with a high ion-exchange capacity (see picture).
