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The cover picture shows a symbolic representation of the fate of vanadate in human blood. Since the transition metal vanadium is named after Vanadis, the Nordic goddess of beauty, she is represented by the famous Venus de Milo sculpted in metal. Her cloth is decorated with the functional groups of the ligands that can form a complex ("dress") with the metal while travelling in the blood vessels, the latter being symbolised by the caverns in the background. The water in the caves represents the aqueous solutions in which speciation studies have been carried out in the group of Professor Lage Pettersson. Further references to these studies are found as cave paintings on the walls: a distribution diagram and a set of 51 V NMR spectra. The studies have been carried out in the framework of the COST D21/009 working group. The geographical locations of the research groups within this working group are shown by illuminated dots on the map of Europe in the background. The goal of the studies was to better understand the ability of vanadium to lower blood glucose levels (represented by the sugar cubes washed ashore on the left) and thus its potential as an orally applicable drug against diabetes. A Microreview, covering the results of the above mentioned speciation studies dealing with the fate of vanadate in human blood, is represented by A. Gorzsa ´s, I. Andersson, and L. Pettersson on p. 3559 ff. The digital artwork for this cover was created by Andra ´s Gorzsa ´s. MICROREVIEW Contents

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Structure analysis using single-crystal diffraction was carried out as a contribution to the dispute about the nature of the water channel structure of bassanite (CaSO(4)·0.5H(2)O). A recent result of Weiss & Bräu (2009) for the crystal structure of bassanite (monoclinic, space group C2) at ambient conditions of air humidity was confirmed. In the presence of high relative air humidity the crystal structure of bassanite transformed due to the incorporation of additional water of hydration. The crystal structure of CaSO(4)·0.625H(2)O was solved by single-crystal diffraction at 298 K and 75% relative air humidity. The experimental results provided an insight into both crystal structures. A model explaining the phase transition from CaSO(4)·0.625H(2)O to CaSO(4)·0.5H(2)O was derived. The monoclinic cell setting of CaSO(4)·0.5H(2)O and the trigonal cell setting of CaSO(4)·0.625H(2)O were confirmed by powder diffraction.

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The previously reported structures of the hydrates of simple inorganic salts that crystallize at room temperature are generally well determined. This is not true for water-rich hydrates, which crystallize at temperatures below 273 K. In this series, investigations of the crystal structures of water-rich hydrates crystallized from aqueous solutions at low temperatures are presented. Reported herein are the structures of a set of magnesium salts. Crystals of MgCl2·8H2O (magnesium dichloride octahydrate), MgCl2·12H2O (magnesium dichloride dodecahydrate), MgBr2·6H2O (magnesium dibromide hexahydrate), MgBr2·9H2O (magnesium dibromide nonahydrate), MgI2·8H2O (magnesium diiodide octahydrate) and MgI2·9H2O (magnesium diiodide nonahydrate) were grown from their aqueous solutions at temperatures below 298 K according to the solid-liquid phase diagrams. All structures are built up from Mg(H2O)6 octahedra. Dimensions and angles in the hexaaqua cation complexes are very similar and variation is not systematic. The anions are incorporated into a specific network of O-H...X hydrogen bonds.