Gone chemical fishing

The latest issue of my column on SpectroscopyNOW is online this week, reporting on Euro chemists who have used a combinatorial approach to go fishing for ring-shaped molecules that soak up specific heavy metals: Macrocyclic fishers.

Also online: Gold nanorods with a non-toxic coating to beat cancer, a theoretical approach to crystallisation reveals at long last the complete chemical structure of an important amino acid.

Finally, chemists in Iran have developed a statistical tool for tracking down the culprits who spill heavy fuel oil at offshore drilling sites.