In a combined synthetic and theoretical effort, yttrium and dysprosium complexes containing the unprecedented N₂^3- radical anion were synthesized and characterized by William J. Evans, Ming Fang, Gael Zucchi, Filipp Furche, and Joseph W. Ziller at UCI Chemistry, and Ryan M. Hoekstra and Jeffrey I. Zink from UCLA. X-ray structures, EPR and Raman spectra and density functional calculations indicate a formal bond order of 1.5, and suggest N₂^3- as a possible intermediate in natural nitrogen fixation. After publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society this work was recently featured in C&EN and Nature Chemistry.