A brief account of the Michael reaction is provided, illustrating its versatility as a topic in undergraduate chemistry courses. Included is a short biography of the reaction's namesake, examples of its use in organic synthesis, and its unique role in the defense mechanism of the bacterium Micromonospora echinospora. A computational rationale for the selectivity of 1,4 versus 1,2 addition of nucleophiles to α,β-unsaturated carbonyls is discussed and links to animations suitable for an introductory organic chemistry course are provided.
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Poon et al. (2002) studied this question.