Communicating chemistry articles from across Nature Portfolio

Interaction between synthetic and natural cells is a major goal with huge potential. Here, the authors developed DNA-assembled, stimuli-responsive artificial cells capable of contact-dependent communication to precisely modulate mammalian cell behaviors.

PTFE waste, a growing ecological concern, urges the exploration of disposal methods. This study investigates PTFE’s plasma gasification, revealing POCD (oxygen) and FHD (steam) pathways. Experiments validate the above mechanism, showing an 80.12% fluorine recovery in 5 min under optimal conditions.

The use of electronic devices to process electrical signals in molecular communications can hardly realize its potential for various applications. Here, the authors report on chemical concentration signal processing in real time and digital signal transmission over distances.

Agentic workflows powered by large language models are beginning to assist chemists in literature search, summarization, and outline drafting. Though they remain unable to replace expert insight, these systems promise to reshape how reviews are prepared — shifting the human role from exhaustive curator to creative synthesizer, empowered by intelligent, always-on review-copilots.

The Element Sets project created more than 1,600 sets of 37 pure elements that were sent free to schools all over Australia. This outreach project was able to target very remote and under-resourced schools, and support students and teachers indefinitely without requiring a continual pipeline of funding, consumables and planning.

Metal-catalysed multicomponent cross-coupling reactions enable the efficient and diverse synthesis of complex molecules. Now, clever use of anionic ligands facilitates the coordination of native functional groups to the catalyst to control regioselectivity, avoiding the installation of directing groups and expanding the accessible chemical space.

Much natural-product-based drug discovery has depended on the practices of Indigenous Peoples, who have sometimes invested centuries of care into the cultivation and use of plant or fungal matter. However, the contributions of the original discoverers can be lost as the natural products are developed into pharmaceutical products.

Adam Noble discusses the diverse uses of eosin Y over its 150-year history, from its origin as a dye and pigment used by post-impressionist masters to its versatile reactivity as a catalyst in visible light photochemistry.

Chem Kids is a science camp where children ages 10 to 12 years old learn the notoriously difficult subject of organic chemistry.