Aldehydes to esters in one step. Palladium catalyzed. Acetone(!) as the oxidant. Brilliant on so many levels.

Org. Lett. 2013, ASAP (DOI: 10.1021/ol303298g)

I admire their honesty about the fact that the stumbled upon this protocol when identifying byproducts from other planned reactions, and then realized that this might be useful for scientists outside their own field. That is how you roll!

Once again, serendipity FTW.