Click chemistry book review - Cumulenes in Click Reactions

By an industrial chemist, this book has collected, cataloged, classified and summarized many types of click reactions under the umbrella of cumulene click chemistry. The author, being a true expert monitoring the field since 60s, has extensively covered the reactions in a very balanced manner, by describing the main features of the reactions and giving carefully selected examples. They all point to original journal publications for further reading. The book clearly demonstrates how vast the field is and how many reactions can potentially be regarded and / or developed into true click chemistry. Although the author states no intention of exclusiveness, it is quite exclusive in my opinion. And it is updated as well - even if we admit that the click chemistry field grows extremely fast these days.

Click chemistry highlighted in Chemical Society Reviews Special Issue

Chem. Soc. Rev., 2010, DOI: 10.1039/c003740k

I would say it is a feast - a colletion of the most representative pieces of click chemistry. It  is certainly a must-read for both active practitioners and the ones who are looking to step in.  

Edited by Drs Finn and Fokin and writen by leading groups, this special issue highlights the most recent status of click chemistry and its applications in several major fields. By doing so it effectively reinforces the importance of click chemistry concept. 

The three fields are covered: biomolecules, materials, and different environments. In each of them click chemistry has been demonstrated to be a powerful and growing tool. As the editors pointed out (again): "the more tolerant the connection reaction between molecular building blocks, the more diverse the blocks that can be brought to bear on any problem, and the more likely it will be that solutions to the problem can be found and produced in quantity. If indeed it is useful function that is the goal, then keeping chemistry simple is a useful rule to remember."

"In this deliberate eschewing of more subtle synthetic techniques is an implicit challenge to organic chemists that make complex structures by complex methods (can complex structures be made by simple methods?)......." Quite a challenge to say the least.

Click chemistry: function follows form.