Examination of nature's favorite molecules reveals a striking preference for making carbon-heteroatom bonds over carbon-carbon bonds-surely no surprise given that carbon dioxide is nature's starting material and that most reactions are performed in water. Nucleic acids, proteins, and polysaccharides are condensation polymers of small subunits stitched together by carbon-heteroatom bonds. Even the 35 or so building blocks from which these crucial molecules are made each contain, at most, six contiguous C-C bonds, except for the three aromatic amino acids. Taking our cue from nature's approach, we address here the development of a set of powerful, highly reliable, and selective reactions for the rapid synthesis of useful new compounds and combinatorial libraries through heteroatom links (C-X-C), an approach we call "click chemistry". Click chemistry is at once defined, enabled, and constrained by a handful of nearly perfect "spring-loaded" reactions. The stringent criteria for a process to earn click chemistry status are described along with examples of the molecular frameworks that are easily made using this spartan, but powerful, synthetic strategy.

https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/1521-3773%2820010601%2940%3A11%3C2004%3A%3AAID-ANIE2004%3E3.0.CO%3B2-5

Click Chemistry: Diverse Chemical Function from a Few Good Reactions.

How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

Dynamic combinatorial chemistry.

Betrachtet man die in der Natur am haufigsten vorkommenden Verbindungen, so fallt auf, dass die Bildung von Kohlenstoff-Heteroatom-Bindungen gegenuber der von Kohlenstoff-Kohlenstoff-Bindungen deutlich bevorzugt ist Da zum einen Kohlendioxid die Basisverbindung der Natur ist und andererseits das Medium naturlicher Reaktionen zumeist Wasser ist, uberrascht dies sicherlich nicht Nucleinsauren, Proteine und Polysaccharide sind polymere Kondensationsprodukte kleiner Untereinheiten, die durch Kohlenstoff-Heteroatom-Bindungen verknupft sind Sogar die etwa 35 Baueinheiten, aus denen diese essentiellen Verbindungen bestehen, enthalten nicht mehr als sechs aufeinander folgende C-C-Bindungen, sieht man einmal von den drei aromatischen Aminosauren ab Mit der Natur als Vorbild richteten wir unser Interesse auf die Entwicklung leistungsfahiger, gut funktionierender und selektiver Reaktionen fur die effiziente Synthese neuartiger nutzlicher Verbindungen sowie kombinatorischer Bibliotheken mittels Heteroatomverknupfungen (C-X-C) Diese Synthesestrategie nennen wir „Click-Chemie“ Click-Chemie ist durch eine Auswahl einiger weniger nahezu idealer Reaktionen charakterisiert, mit all ihren Grenzen und Moglichkeiten In diesem Beitrag werden zum einen die strengen Kriterien, die Reaktionen erfullen mussen, um die Bezeichnung „Click-Chemie“ zu verdienen, definiert, zum anderen werden Beispiele fur molekulare Strukturen gegeben, die mit dieser spartanischen, aber dennoch leistungsfahigen Synthesestrategie leicht hergestellt werden konnen

Click-Chemie: diverse chemische Funktionalität mit einer Handvoll guter Reaktionen

How the mind works

(α-Alkylation of α-heterosubstituted carboxylic acids without racemization : EPC-syntheses of tertiary alcohols and thiols☆☆☆

A most useful strategy has been devised for the synthesis of 3-substituted pyrroles on the basis of the kinetic electrophilic substitution of 1-(triisopropylsilyl) pyrrole (1) at the β position and subsequent fluoride ion induced desilylation. This now becomes the preferred route to 3-monosubstituted pyrroles

N-(Triisopropylsilyl)pyrrole. A progenitor "par excellence" of 3-substituted pyrroles

Titanate-Mediated Transesterifications with Functionalized Substrates

Steroselective Alkylation at C(α) of Serine, Clyceric Acid, Threonine, and Tartaric Acid Involving Heterocyclic Enolates with Evocyelic Double Bonds



The chiral, non-racemic title acids are converted to methyl dioxolane-(cf.13), oxazoline-(4) and oxazolidinecarboxylates (cf.9). Deprotonation by Li(i-Pr) 2N at dry-ice temperature gives solutions of the lithium enolates A–D With exocyclic enolate double bonds. These are stable crough with respect to β-elimination (Scheme 1) to be alkylated with or without cosolvents such as HMPA or DMPU The products are formed in good to excellent yields and, with the exception of the tartrate-derived acetonlde (see Scheme 2), with diastereoselectivities above 90%. While the tartrate-and threonine-derived enolates (A and B, resp.) are chiral due to the second stereogenic center of the precursors, the serine- and glyceric-acid-derived enolates (Aand B, resp.) are chiral due to the second sterogenic center of the precursors, the serine-nd glyceric-acid-derived enolates are non-racemic due to a tert butyl-substituted (pivalaldehyde-derived) acetal center (C and D, resp.). The products of alkylation can be hydrolyzed to give α-branched tartaric acid (Scheme 2), allothreonine (Scheme 3), serine (Scheme 4), and glyceric-acid derivatives (Scheme 5) with quaternary stereogenic centers. The configurations of the products are determined by NOE-NMR measurements and by chemical correlation. These show that the dioxolane-derived enolates A and D are alkylated preferentially from that face of the ring which is already substituted (‘syn’-attack), while the dihydrooxazol-and oxazolidine-derived enolates B and C are alkylated from the opposite face (‘anti’-attack). The ‘syn’-attack is postulated to arise from strong folding of the heterocyclic ring due to electronic repulsion between the enolate π-system and non-bonding electron pairs on the heteroatoms (see Scheme 6).

Stereoselektive Alkylierung an C(α) von Serin, Glycerinsäure, Threonin und Weinsäure über heterocyclische Enolate mit exocyclischer Doppelbindung†‡

Driving innovation and creativity has relied heavily on new information technologies in the last decade. Human capital has certainly had its importance, but how to coordinate human capital in order to push productivity in research and development without compromising individual initiative is still not well understood. In this paper, we provide results showing that geometry of workspace has indeed an impact on communication patterns and may thus be used as a means to drive both innovation and efficient research. In order to be creative, new knowledge has to be created. Communication facilitates knowledge creation. We try to close the bridge between areas of creation of tacit knowledge and transfer of knowledge highlighted by authors like Nonaka, Takeuchi, Konno, von Krogh and von Hippel with the area of communication patterns pioneered by Allen, Hatch, and Stryker, by considering face-to-face (FTF) communication as a first step for socialization, socialization as a means for knowledge creation. In this article, we compare two different office environments within the same site, same activity, same hierarchical level and same company: a traditional cell office area and a new multi-space office, used by people who used to work in cell offices. We observed FTF communication patterns during 120 h in two areas and measured over 2,000 communication events. We found that people communicate three times more often in a multi-space area than in a cell-space area. We also found that the mean duration of communication events decreased from 9 to 3 min when transferring collaborators from a cell-space to a multi-space. Finally time spent without communication increased from 5% to 29% when going from cell-offices to multi-space areas – leaving more time for people to work and think on their own. And we found that most communication events during work time in the multi-space took place at the work place and seldom or never in soft sitting areas installed for the purpose of communication.

Reto Naef

Papers

(α-Alkylation of α-heterosubstituted carboxylic acids without racemization : EPC-syntheses of tertiary alcohols and thiols☆☆☆

N-(Triisopropylsilyl)pyrrole. A progenitor "par excellence" of 3-substituted pyrroles

Titanate-Mediated Transesterifications with Functionalized Substrates

Stereoselektive Alkylierung an C(α) von Serin, Glycerinsäure, Threonin und Weinsäure über heterocyclische Enolate mit exocyclischer Doppelbindung†‡

Impact of office layout on communication in a science‐driven business