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Abstract

The Badische Anilin- & Sodafabrik BASF, was founded on April 6th, 1865 by Friedrich Engelhorn in Mannheim, Germany, and is thus 150 years old this year. To celebrate the firm's special anniversary, this Issue offers a collection of Reviews and Essays covering the contributions made by chemistry in the areas of energy, nutrition, and city life. Where will the energy that we need come from in the future? How can enough food and clean water for every single person be provided? What will the city of the future look like? Appropriately the Cover Picture presents some highlights from the broad pallet of products produced by BASF: cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries (top), membranes for clean water (bottom), along with Xemium®, a new active ingredient and next-generation fungicide. This Issue accompanies three BASF anniversary symposia in Ludwigshafen (9th/10th March), Chicago (23rd/24th June), and Shanghai (10th/11th November), at which authors in this Issue are lecturing. It is introduced by an Essay by A. Kreimeyer et al. on page 3178 ff. about the history of and the current direction of research at BASF, and followed by an Essay by G. M. Whitesides on page 3196 ff., in which he calls for a rethink in chemical research. All twenty Essays and Reviews in this Issue demonstrate the huge importance of chemical research—it must, and will, contribute to raising the average quality of life of a growing world population. Angewandte Chemie congratulates BASF on its anniversary