In this issue’s Review, H. Zuilhof et al. discuss the covalent modification of oxide surfaces. How can monolayers improve the robustness, functionalization, and the application potential of such substrates? In a Minireview, M. Beller et al. summarize methods for the carbonylation of alkenes with CO surrogates.

In the Communications section, H. Fang et al. report on the irreversible denaturation of proteins through the aluminum-induced formation of backbone ring structures. P. Doyle et al. succeeded in highly enantioselective carbonyl–ene reactions of 2,3-diketoesters to yield functionalized chiral α-hydroxy-β-ketoesters. A. P. Woodham and A. Fielicke describe the formation of superoxides on isolated cationic gold clusters.

• Angewandte Chemie: Surfaces and What’s Below,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53(25).