A Northwestern University-led international team of scientists has, for the first time, directly observed catalysis in-action ...

This video shows a fleeting hemiacetal alkoxide intermediate, which the researchers, unprecedentedly, captured. The team also observed its reverse aldehyde elimination, generating an aldehyde and a ...

Binding of the hydroxyl group to the aldehyde (by reversible formation of a hemiacetal) would bring the ester close to the pyridine nitrogen, and enable nucleophilic catalysis and hydrolysis at a ...