[5]Radialene Fills In A Missing Hydrocarbon Gap
Radialenes are a unique class of star-shaped cyclic hydrocarbons that have double bonds radiating out from each carbon in the ring. Prior to this year, chemists had made the three-, four-, and six-membered ring versions of these polyenes, but never [5]radialene—it had always been too unstable. A research team including Emily G. Mackay and Michael S. Sherburn of Australian National University and Michael N. Paddon-Row of the University of New South Wales developed a synthetic strategy to make the missing link for the first time (J.

Two students have won prestigious scholarships to do post graduate studies at ANU.
Alexandra Schumann-Gillett and Tessa Henwood-Mitchell have been named 2016 Westpac Future Leaders Scholarships recipients.
The scholarship will allow Ms Schumann-Gillett, who has been working as a research assistant in the O'Mara group in the ANU Research School of Chemistry, to start her PhD studies in this group in January 2016.
In her PhD Ms Schumann-Gillett will use computer models to look at how "off fats" in brain cells lead to Alzheimer's disease.

ANU and Osaka University recently came together to host a three day symposium on protein chemistry. But the bond between the two institutions runs much deeper, especially when it comes to collaborating on research to better understand the chemical composition of life.