1IntroductionDuring 2001 there were various reviews concerning these elements: salen liganded complexes;1Sb and Bi Lewis acid–base adducts;2hetero-bimetallic complexes with Group 1 metals;3hydrides;4hydrolysis of the alkyls and aryls;5π-bonding to Group 15 ethene-like compounds;6multiple Al–Ga bonds;7amido compounds of Ga and In;8tetrametallic Al complexes (dubbed ‘Mitsubishi molecules’);9cationic alanes with aminotroponiminate ligands;10Al and Ga monohalides and Al and Ga clusters;11silicate complexes of Al(iii) in aqueous systems.12An important new bookAluminium and Alzheimer'sDiseaseprovides an up-to-date assessment by many leading experts of the current state of research.13There were separate reviews concerning the safety evaluation of dietary aluminium,14aand aluminium toxicokinetics.14bDuring the past couple of years there has been a great deal of activity concerning the use of In for organic synthesis.15,16Here, we have a separate section on indium in organic synthesis.In 2001 over 12,000 references to articles involving Al to Tl were collected by the daily ISI search. Semiconductor uses for these account for a very large number of articles, as do the technological uses of the metals, their alloys and oxides. For Ga, as the demand for GaAs wafers soared, a limited supply caused the Ga price to triple from US$500 per kg to US$1500 per kg. The appearance of the first GaN wafer at the end of the year may be a portent of even higher Ga prices.