A chance meeting in Ethiopia four years ago between Martyn Poliakoff, who heads research into green chemistry at Nottingham University, and Nigist Asfaw, of Addis Ababa University, sparked a series of collaborations that has resulted in the Federation of African Societies of Chemistry's first annual conference, which is scheduled to be held in Addis Ababa in September. Green chemistry focuses on developing environmentally sensitive ways to create chemicals. Details can be found in the online version of the journal Science.