Credit:
María Barcenilla
These frosty white crystals are a reminder that sometimes mundane lab moments like solvent leaks can also create something pretty. María Barcenilla, a postdoctoral researcher in Mateo Alonso’s group at the University of the Basque Country, works on highly conjugated organic materials such as nanoribbons and nanographene. She was purifying a boronic ester building block using routine column chromatography. Some of the dichloromethane solvent leaked out of the bottom of the column apparatus and crystallized on the tip. “What started as an annoying leak ended up looking surprisingly beautiful—a tiny winter scene right there on the bench,” she says.
Submitted by María Barcenilla
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2026 American Chemical Society
