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The article profiles chemist M. Frederick Hawthorne, the 2009 recipient of the Priestly Medal in the U.S. It states that the American Chemical Society will honor Hawthorne for his contributions to the advancement of inorganic chemistry and for his pioneering boron studies. It notes that Hawthorne is dreaming of using his polyhedral boranes and caboranes for boron neutron capture therapy (BCNT) to cure common cancers.

The article reports on a study led at the University of Missouri, Columbia, according to which replacing the terminal substituent group on a small-molecule drug candidate with a carborane cage could increase the molecule's potency as an enzyme inhibitor.

The article reports on a study which developed a new class of bifunctional ligands that can chelate metals while leaving an NH group available for further derivatization by coupling a carborane and an amidinate. The resulting carboranylamidinate may be useful in such applications as catalysis and manufacturing polymer films. According to the German chemists who conducted the study, the carboranylamidinate coordinates chromium and tin to form monomeric or dimeric C,N complexes.

The article discusses a study by Brandeis University researchers which cites that a robust silylium-carborane catalyst can transform notoriously strong, unreactive carbon-fluorine bonds into carbon-hydrogen bonds under mild conditions. The result could lead to a strategy for disposal or recycling of fluorocarbons.

Reports that methyl groups attached to boron atoms in carborane cage compounds exert an electron-withdrawing effect rather than the electron-donating effect commonly associated with methyl substituents. Adaption of carboranes as ligands.

Reports on the synthesis of a closed-cage carborane that contains 14 vertices. Highlights of the research conducted by a team of chemists led by Zuowei Xie of the Chinese University of Hong Kong; Suggestion that even larger closed-cage carboranes are possible using the approach developed by Xie and colleagues.

Discusses findings of a study revealing synthetic methods to incorporate carborane moieties into organosilicon scaffolds to make dendrimers, developed by scientists from the Barcelona Institute of Materials Science in Spain. Composition of carboranes; Applications; Approaches used by the scientists in the study.

Cites news events on science and technology research. Discovery of the unique genes in the Mimivirus genome not present in other viruses citing its role in revealing the role of viruses in the evolution cells; Description by Christopher A. Reed of the strongest isolable Bronsted acid and the chlorinated carborane assessing the relative strength of acid.

Examines the carboranes for nuclear medicine at the University in Hamilton, Ontario. Synthesis strategy to prepare technetium and rhenium used for diagnostic and therapeutic reagents; Emphasis on treating cancers and rheumatoid arthritis; Details on the functions of carboranes for bioconjugation.