This is the first Mimivirus isolated from a human specimen. The findings presented above together with previous works establish that mimiviruses can be associated with pneumonia. The common occurrence of these viruses in water and soil makes them probable global agents that are worthy of investigation.

Here, a bioinspired strategy is used to prepare well-ordered nanotubular structures, as observed in animals and plants, such as gecko toe pads or corals. The nanotubes are obtained by templateless electropolymerization of thieno[3,4- b ]thiophene-based monomers with various aromatic groups in an organic solvent (dichloromethane). The most interesting and robust structures were obtained with carbazole and pyrene substituents to the base monomer structure, since these groups participate significantly in the polymerization and also have strong π -stacking interactions. The addition of water to electropolymerization solvent significantly impacted the formation of nanotubes, as it caused the release of a significant amount of H 2 and O 2 bubbles, depending on the electropolymerization method. Identifying templateless approaches to vary nanotubular structures is very interesting, as these materials are sought-after for applications in water harvesting systems. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bioinspired materials and surfaces for green science and technology (part 3)’.

Surface modifications are keys for a great number of applications. In order to perfectly control the surface properties, it is important to control the modification pathways. Two general pathways can be described in order to introduce modification on surfaces: the post-strategies and the ante-strategies. In this work, we focus on the comparison between the Huisgen and the Staudinger-Vilarrasa reaction for both post-surface and ante-surface modifications. Here, we focused on the possibility to use both two reactions to obtain superhydrophobic and oleophobic properties. This work includes monomer synthesis, surface modifications with alkyl, aryl or perfluoroalkyl chain.