On the role of surfactants: rethinking “aqueous” chemistry

Some of the latest technological developments involving chemistry in water are discussed. Although each advance bears little-to-no relationship to the others, in the composite they highlight the seemingly unlimited opportunities for discovering nature's secrets using water as the reaction medium. Thus, in addition to the environmental aspects driving this research, the benefits to be realized in making this switch away from reactions run in organic solvents and into an aqueous medium are clearly indicative of the future of synthetic organic chemistry.