Cover Picture: Robust Chemical Preservation of Digital Information on DNA in Silica with Error-Correcting Codes (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 8/2015)

Genetic information embedded in our bones may endure for thousands of years, while data written on hard drives will barely survive 50 years. In their Communication on page 2552 ff., R. N. Grass and co-workers show how artificially fossilized DNA (DNA encapsulated in silica) and modern data encoding techniques can be utilized to safely store, for example, the text of the Archimedes Palimpsest for future millennia. The error-correcting codes correct storage-related errors and allow for perfect recovery of the information.

Hydrogen Oxidation

In their Communication on page 2340 ff., G. A. Somorjai, J. Y. Park et al. report the effects of Pt nanoparticle size on hot electron flow during hydrogen oxidation. 1.7 nm nanoparticles show a higher catalytic activity than 4.5 nm nanoparticles.1

Macromolecule Biophysics

S. Ebbinghaus et. al. studied the macromolecular crowding in living cells by using a polymer-based probe. In their Communication on page 2548 ff., they report the effects of osmotic stress on the environment within the cell.1

Supramolecular Chemistry

In their Communication on page 2457 ff., S. J. Holder, N. A. J. M. Sommerdijk et al. report on the internal morphology of complex polymeric nanospheres and show that the internal structure can be controlled by changing the overall molecular weight and relative hydrophilic content of the composite polymer.1