At last, the long anticipated second edition of the highly successful Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis (EROS) is publishing in print in March 2009. With its wealth of valuable information, excellent editorial leadership and methodical classification, EROS has become the authoritative reference source on reagents and catalysts.

This makes EROS vital reading for everybody working in organic synthesis. It has wide appeal, with relevance not only to Organic Chemists, but also to Inorganic, Physical and Analytical Chemists, Materials Scientists, Chemical Engineers,...

New methods for the construction of condensed five-membered ring systems continue to be developed at an accelerated pace. The challenges underlying this tremendous current upsurge of interest arise from several directions. One stems from the desire to elucidate and resolve those special problems associated with the incorporation of added strain not present when six-membered rings are mutually fused. The many structurally interesting polyquinane natural products isolated and characterized in recent years have provided a particularly delightful forum for application of various new synthetic...