4. Conclusion

Supramolecular chemistry is a fascinating field at the interface of many disciplines. The 1987 Nobel Prize, awarded jointly to J.M. Lehn, D.J. Cram and C.J. Pedersen, celebrated the first steps of an emerging discipline that was to see spectacular developments in organic synthesis, biology, physics and materials science. The first source of inspiration was the living. The aim was to understand, reproduce and exploit selective recognition processes involving molecules and/or macromolecules of biological origin. This seminal work, celebrated by the highest scientific distinction of our time, has enabled us to better define the perimeter of this burgeoning field as that of chemistry "beyond the molecule", involving so-called "weak" non-covalent bonds, as opposed to the high-energy covalent bonds classically used in organic synthesis to build molecules step by step from atoms.

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