I was on ChemComm when the fullerenes came to the fore...we had the paper from Harry K. The Kraetschmer paper was with Nature...we didn't technically fast-track it, but we worked on it diligently from refereering to proofs. I think Nature still beat us by a week (we were fortnightly)

I think so. I think you cant have properly shaped molecular machines based on carbon or silicon chemistry without homochirality or at least localized homochirality. I guess it is possible that one could have two separate ribosomal-like systems, mutually exclusive, using both enantiomers...seems bad

Are you only allowed to break the omerta of who handled what paper when it wins a Nobel??

It feels very good to have been the editor who handled Soai's 1995 paper in Nature on autocatalytic amplification of an enantiomeric excess - now known as the Soai reaction. This seemed a curiosity at the time, but we clearly made the right call.

Yeah, could have said 'he/she' or 'they', but come on, it's the Nobels!

Click through to hear the original answerphone message from the Nobel committee to tell Harry he'd won! And find a link to the 1992 Horizon documentary that inspired me as a 13 year old...

Safe to report that none of the photos I took ended up being used, or indeed any good.

No worries – it's all of ~10 paces from my desk to the kitchen bookshelf!

Having had to get the cookbook off the shelf for this, I had forgotten the recipe also includes an egg and 1tsp baking powder, but I never add those - maybe the baking pow would help, not sure the egg would!

The one I use (normally half of to make 2 naan) is 200ml water, 2Tbsp oil, 4Tbsp yogurt, 450g strong white flour, 2tsp salt, 2tsp sugar, 7g yeast (1.5tsp?). Knead, prove, shape, rise. Cook in a v hot frying pan for ... 5min per side (no idea, just do it by eye). A lid helps.

The petrol price comparison site reckons that is ~20p per mile. Charging our electric car at 10.5p per kWh and doing ~4 miles per kWh works out to 2.6p per mile. For my bike ride to/from work today I guess you could count the 75p banana: ~8p per mile. Shockingly expensive!

Diesel at my nearest + cheapest source (a supermarket) is £1.95 per litre, which Google AI converts to $9.94 per (US) gallon; regular unleaded petrol (gasoline) is £1.72 per litre => $8.77 per gallon.

The furin cleavage site strikes bat, I mean back...