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Abstract

Whether a newly developed chemical reaction finds its way into the chemist’s toolbox for synthesis depends on various factors, such as the convenience of the experimental set-up and the toxicity of the reagents and by-products. Most importantly, an ideal reaction should be general — it must generate the expected products reliably for a wide range of previously unused substrate molecules. However, the generality of a reaction typically becomes apparent only after it has been used reproducibly in a variety of syntheses. Writing in Nature, Wagen et al.¹ present a protocol for screening reactions that might accelerate the development of general catalytic methods for asymmetric synthesis, the field of chemistry that aims to make single mirror-image isomers of organic compounds.