Yearbook 2007

Organocatalysis is a new strategy for catalysis in which purely organic catalysts are employed. With numerous spectacular developments, it has won its place within the field of organic chemistry. Here we describe the development of a novel concept, namely Asymmetric Counteranion Directed Catalysis (ACDC). This new strategy has been originally developed within the area of organocatalysis but in addition has found interesting utility in transition metal catalysis. more

For a long time chirality has fascinated chemists, together with the question how nature chose to only use one of two mirror-image forms of chiral molecules. Experiments show that phase behaviour of chiral amino acids in saturated solutions can amplify small imbalances in the amounts of both forms, until basically only one remains. The potential significance for the origin of life is discussed. more

A research project at the Kunsthistorische Institut in Florence is working on a new, critical German edition of Giorgio Vasari’s Vite, a fundamental documentary source for Italian Renaissance art. Apart from thorough annotation of the approximately 160 biographies of the artists, their artworks and themes, also Vasari’s rhetorical strategies, underlying subtexts, and parallels to other lives or literary texts are explored. In addition, variations and divergences between the 1550 and 1568 editions of the Vite are analyzed. more