Sometimes the originators of seminal theories in chemistry write a personal and anecdotal account of their work. Niels Bohr was one such and four decades later Robert Woodward wrote “The conservation of orbital symmetry” (Chem. Soc. Special Publications...

In the preceding post, I introduced Dewar’s-complex theory for alkene-metal compounds, outlining the molecular orbital analysis he presented, in which the filled -MO of the alkene donates into a Ag+empty metal orbital and back-donation occurs from a filled...

The period 1951–1954 was a golden one for structural chemistry; proteins, DNA, Ferrocene (1952) and the one I discuss here, a bonding model for Zeise’s salt (3). In”A review of Complex Theory”, Bull. Soc. Chim. Fr., 1951, 1 8 , C79 (it...

On 8th August this year, I posted on a fascinating article that had just appeared in Science (DOI:10.1126/science.1188002), in which the crystal structure was reported of two small molecules,1,3-dimethyl cyclobutadieneandcarbon dioxide, entrapped together inside...

It is not often that an article on the topic of illusion and deception makes it into a chemical journal. Such is addressed (DOI:10.1002/anie.201102210) in no less an eminent journal than Angew Chemie. The illusion (or deception if you will) actually goes to...

For those of us who were around in 1985, an important chemical IT innovation occurred. We could acquire a computer which could be used to draw chemical structures in one application, and via a mysterious and mostly invisible entity called the clipboard, paste...

What can you do if you're a scientist?I recently finished reading Michael Nielsen's book Reinventing Discovery.  This is not another review of the book (there are many: Google it).  I'll just say it is a well written book on a very important topic,...

Henry Rzepa brought this interesting paper to my attention via his blog post. I have a few comments too.Isobe and co-workers prepared the interesting polycyclic aromatic compound 1, which they represent with the picture given below.1 The molecule is non-planar...

Penrose, Escher, back – M.C. Escher‘s famously paradoxical illustration of 1960 depicting a stairway atop an “impossible” building, and made famous recently in a dreamscape of the Hollywood movie “Inception“, that seems to...