I’ve been expecting you Mr Bond This year saw more work probing the nature of bonding. In Germany, Holger Braunschweig of Julius-Maximillians University in Würzberg, found that reacting a bis(N-heterocyclic carbene)-stabilised tetrabromodiborane with sodium naphthalene gave diborene or diboryne compounds with the world’s first stable boron–boron triple bond.1 Although boron has been an obvious target for triple bond creation, up until now the element has been reluctant and had only formed a triple bond at a chilly 8K. The new work, at room temperature, is distinctly warmer. The world's first stable germanium–oxygen double was created © NPG And if...