A surprising new kind of proton transfer - Common wisdom has it that protons only travel between molecules via hydrogen bonds: no hydrogen bonds, no proton transfer. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source and their colleagues at the University of Southern California investigating molecular components of RNA were surprised to find that protons can find ways to transfer even when hydrogen bonds are blocked. The discovery may open new opportunities for research in biology, environmental science, and green chemistry. Reference: "Ionization of dimethyluracil dimers leads to facile proton transfer in the absence of H-bonds," A. Golan et al, appears in 'Nature Chemistry' advance online publication at http://www.nature.com/nchem/index.html.