In the book “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” by J. K. Rowling, Harry writes a question in Tom Riddle’s diary—and a written answer appears. Australian researchers were inspired by the idea of paper that writes on itself. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, they have introduced a blood test that indicates blood type in plain text.

Some medicines have to be taken either before, after, or during a meal because food ingredients can affect its absorption or bioavailability. Australian researchers have now encapsulated drugs in a matrix of silicon dioxide and lipids to simulate the administration of pharmaceuticals with food. As the researchers report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, drug absorption is increased through control of the enzymatic digestion of the lipid droplets.

No matter if it is a giant complex, a high-rise, or an underground project, modern architecture cannot get along without concrete. The component in concrete that holds the other components together is cement. In order to control the properties of concrete, it is important to know what occurs as it hardens. German scientists have now successfully watched the first few seconds in the “life” of cement by means of X-ray diffraction. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, they explain the role of the superplasticizers added to concrete.

Mussels are true masters of adhesion. They bond solidly under water to nearly any type of surface. Researchers from Mainz have been inspired by mussel adhesive proteins to add another exciting property. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, their new adhesive can be debonded on demand.

It has long been well established that fingerprints can be used to identify people or help convict them of crimes. Things have gone a lot further now: fingerprints can be used to show that a suspect is a smoker, takes drugs, or has handled explosives, among other things. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Pompi Hazarika and David Russell describe the noteworthy progress that has recently been made.

The future will be dominated by organic electronics, as opposed to current silicon-based technology. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, an international team of researchers has now introduced a new luminescent organic liquid that can be applied like ink. When two additional dyes are dissolved in this liquid, it forms a white luminescent paste that may offer a new way to make devices like large displays and white light-emitting diodes.

It is not always easy to distinguish between images and mirror images of molecules, but this knowledge is important when one image of a molecule is a drug and the mirror image is toxic. One new approach to this may be chiral recognition in the gas phase. This involves using synchrotron radiation (highly energetic photons from a particle accelerator) to eject electrons from the molecules and analyzing their trajectories. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, German researchers have now demonstrated that such experiments also work with a compact laser system.

Even in the early stages of cancer, individual cancer cells can be found in the blood. Certain subsets of these circulating tumor cells can cause metastasis. In cases of breast cancer, it is known that these cells can differ from the original tumor cells, which allows them to survive treatment to cause later recurrence. It could thus be quite informative to detect these cells in the blood and examine them more closely. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, researchers at the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) describe a new chip-based method that allows for the detection and isolation of tiny concentrations of such cells in blood.

Phosphorus and arsenic are on top of each other in one group of the periodic table, so they have many similar properties. In addition to tubular forms, phosphorus is found in white, red, black, and purple structural forms. At room temperature, black phosphorus is the stable form; the others are metastable. According to textbooks, arsenic occurs in gray, yellow, and black forms. However, the existence of black arsenic, which should be analogous to black phosphorus, has never been indisputably proven. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, German researchers have now demonstrated that black arsenic is metastable in its pure form, and that it has thus far only been obtained in a form stabilized by atoms of other elements.

Anyone who thinks amalgams are limited to tooth fillings is missing something: Amalgams, which are alloys of mercury and other metals, have been used for over 2500 years in the production of jewelry and for the extraction of metals like silver and gold in mining operations. These days, the inverse process is of greater interest: the removal of mercury from wastewater by amalgamation with precious metals in the form of nanoparticles. Kseniia Katok and colleagues have now reported new insights in the journal Angewandte Chemie: if the diameter of silver nanoparticles is made even smaller, significantly more mercury can be extracted relative to the amount of silver used.

Wiley titles have been honored with 11 prizes at the 2011 PROSE Awards.

Packaging, insulation, and impact protection are examples of commercial uses of polymer foams. Depending on the intended application, the properties required of these foams can differ greatly. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a team of German, Irish, and French researchers led by Cosima Stubenrauch at the University of Stuttgart has now introduced a new method for the controlled production of structured foams. Their technique is based on the polymerization of foamed emulsions of oil in water.

DNA is not merely a carrier of genetic information; DNA is a useful building material for nanoscale structures. In a way similar to origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, a long single strand of DNA can be folded into nearly any three-dimensional shape desired with the use of short DNA fragments. The DNA nanostructure can also be equipped with specific docking sites for proteins. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a team led by Takashi Morii at the University of Kyoto (Japan) has now introduced a new method for attaching the proteins by means of special “adapters” known as zinc-finger proteins.

Was the consumption of toxic mushrooms responsible for a series of unusual deaths in China’s Yunnan province? A team led by Ji-Kai Liu (Beijing) has now found further proof of this hypothesis. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, the researchers now present two unusual toxic amino acids that they found in extracts from the suspect mushrooms.

Delicate and translucent as a puff of air, yet mechanically stable, flexible, and possessing amazing heat-insulation properties—these are the properties of a new aerogel made of cellulose and silica gel. Researchers led by Jie Cai have introduced this novel material, which consists almost completely of air, in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Precious metals, especially platinum, are important catalytic materials for many chemical reactions. For example, platinum is used in some fuel cells; however, broad commercialization of such fuel-cell technology is hampered by the fact that platinum is rare and thus far too expensive. Growing demand is making it necessary to develop efficient and environmentally friendly processes for recycling platinum. Jing-Fang Huang and Hao-Yuan Chen at the National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan have now introduced a new approach in the journal Angewandte Chemie. Their method is based on the dissolution of the metal in an ionic liquid.

Whether it’s right under our nose or far away, when we observe an object we see it—provided we have healthy eyes and normal vision or suitable glasses—in focus. For this to work, muscles deform the lenses of our eyes and adjust them to a suitable focal distance. For miniaturized technical devices, microscale lenses with a similar adaptable focus could be an advantage. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Hong-Bo Sun and a team from Jilin University (China) have described a new approach to the production of adjustable microlenses made from protein gels.