In 1928, chemists Otto Diels and Kurt Alder first documented diene synthesis, a chemical reaction important for synthesizing many polymers, alkaloids and steroids. Their work on this mechanism, which ...

Students of organic chemistry learn early on that S N 2 reactions are characterized by inversion of stereochemical configuration. The incoming nucleophile displaces the leaving group on a carbon atom ...

How is it that a complex organism evolves from a pile of dead matter? How can lifeless materials become organic molecules that are the bricks of animals and plants? Scientists have been trying to ...

Benjamin List and David W. C. MacMillan take home the prize for revolutionizing chiral organic synthesis with small-molecule catalysts Asymmetric organocatalysis is a widely used technique and ...

Researchers report the first-ever total synthesis of inaoside A, a chemical isolated from fungus with medical and dietary potential Natural compounds from plants and animals have long been used in ...