The Mechanical Bond: A Work of Art - Beauty in Chemistry - page 21

beauty than mathematical physics. Whence the beauty of empirical science? As
Roald Hoffman and Pierre Laszlo [ 6 ] have said, “our discipline is a curious mix of
empirical observation and abstract reasoning. This is not unlike music, but it parts
chemistry from the pure rigor of mathematics.” We hope this chapter will contrib-
ute support to the growing initiative [ 7 - 10 ] to widen aesthetic considerations in
chemistry, even as a basis for research [ 11 ].
A discussion of beauty in chemistry might concern the beauty of materials [ 12 ]-
the color and texture of a pigment, or the shape and clarity of a crystal, for example -
or refer to the molecules themselves. Both have an obvious connection with the
visual arts; chemistry is largely responsible for the ever-growing diversity of
materials that artists manipulate, but there is beauty in the structures of molecules
as well. In this chapter, we will leave materials aside and focus on the beauty of
molecular structures, or more accurately their representations with which chemists
engage. The topic of molecular beauty is largely eschewed from the literature,
residing instead primarily in the informal discussions, meetings, and conferences
between colleagues. Nobel laureate Roald Hoffman, who recognized that
chemistry's rich and visual symbolic language is an important contributor to beauty
in science, spearheaded [ 13 - 16 ] a more formal discussion in 1988.
The roots of molecular beauty can be traced back to the Platonic tradition. To
Plato, “the most beautiful bodies in the whole realm of bodies” were the tiny
polyhedra, now deemed the Platonic solids, which he proposed comprise the
universe: the four elements - earth (cube), fire (tetrahedron), air (octahedron),
water (icosahedron) - and the ether (dodecahedron) (Fig. 1 ). Joachim Schummer,
who has written [ 9 ] extensively on chemical aesthetics, writes:
Modern chemistry is exactly the art that provides creative access to what Plato considered
the realm of the most beautiful bodies. Therefore, it is no surprise that chemists put their
creative activity also in the service of beauty.

Of course, the “realm of the most beautiful bodies” is too small to see. But there is
something romantic about the way a molecule is physically crafted, like sculpture,
through diligent labor, yet is only perceived mentally, like poetical imagery, with the
aid of symbols. Here, we engage these symbols - our imperfect and incomplete
representations of molecules - as artwork. We will not hazard straying into the
complex territory of contention on this issue, which has been discussed [ 9 ] superbly
elsewhere, for we understand beauty as that which provides one with a sense of

Cube Tetrahedron Octahedron Icosahedron Dodecahedron

Fig. 1 The Platonic solids are the most beautiful bodies according to Plato. Like molecules, these
imperceptibly small objects were thought to compose the physical world