Molecule of the Day
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007Showcases a molecule with information; Interesting read! Cool site!
The site is by a chemist who enjoys rambling about the relationship between chemistry and real life to non-chemists.
He welcomes any corrections or suggestions for future molecules. I started writing this site because I was displeased with what seemed like a dearth of science writing that is simultaneously:
- Accurate: Too much science writing oversimplifies and panders. I aim for an average technically inclined reader here. I realize that’s sort of a vague concept.
- Interesting: Science is utterly dry without context. Contextualizing science without oversimplification is worth a shot. A lot of people (myself included) might have been ambivalent about chemistry, and sophomore organic was the class where everything “clicked†and it all became fun. For me, it was because it put the world into a chemical frame of reference - probably one of a few classes in college that can make the claim of changing my worldview.
The site will not be very useful if it fails at either of the above goals. Let me know if you have suggestions! I have a lot of fun writing this site, and just like teaching, it forces me to make sure I really understand something before explaining it. As Richard Feynman said, we don’t really understand something if we can’t teach it to college freshmen.
