there were several moving parts in this project : synthetic method development , computer - assisted structure elucidation , and new spectroscopic techniques supported by computational chemistry .
, the manuscript represents the fruits of a modern collaboration . for us , modern means that , despite the fact that we worked productively together , the team has never met together in the same place .
we informally referred to the rearrangement as an  inside - out  reaction even before we knew the details of the product structures . at some point in the early days of the project , an internet search yielded the photos and cartoon of the outsiders , which are inside - out stuffed animals ( http://ateliervolvox.ch/filter/produkte/outsiders ; for other examples of inside - out stuffed animals see http://www.kentrogowski.com/projects/bears/ ) .
atelier volvox was generous in allowing us the use of their teddy bear transformation cartoon to give a strong visual anchor for the rearrangement .
we were lucky to leave the rest of the work to a program assistant in the uconn chemistry department , aneesa bey .
she works on finance and accounting but also happens to have a great sense of design and composition .
the manuscript would not have been possible without a healthy dose of serendipity , especially if serendipity 's alias is the chemconnector .
a visit by antony williams ( known online as the chemconnector ) to uconn in fall 2014 was essential to the formation of the team . at the time
, we had already obtained the structure of one class of the rearranged , inside - out compounds by x - ray crystallography .
we were grappling with the other class of compounds because the nmr data we had were difficult for us to interpret .
connected  us with the rest of the team , and the project came together very quickly after that .
 invited for this month 's cover picture is the group of professor mark peczuh at the university of connecticut . 
 the cover picture compares the rearrangement of a small molecule to the process of turning a stuffed animal inside out . 
 the recycled , inside - out stuffed animals are both artistic and philosophically provocative . 
 they capture the essence of the rearrangement reaction because the compounds themselves turn inside out over the course of the reaction , extending the diversity of products that can arise from simple starting materials . 
 small molecules often have functional groups with latent reactivity ; under the appropriate conditions , those groups can react with other compounds ( e.g. , reagents ) and also with other groups in the same molecule in an intramolecular reaction . 
 the research team found that the epoxidation of some highly functionalized spiroketal compounds promoted rearrangements of their structures that turned them inside out . 
 some of the features of the products led them to use x - ray crystallography or a combination of computer - assisted structure elucidation , computation , and a new version of the 1,1-adequate nmr experiment to determine their structures . for more details , see the communication on p.  577  ff . 
In one word, how would you describe your research?
Who contributed to the idea behind the cover?
Did serendipity play a part in this work?