The Beauty of Chemistry in the Words of Writers and in the Hands of Scientists - Beauty in Chemistry - page 76

encountered in everyday life: barrels, baskets, belts, bowls, boxes, bridges,
butterflies, cages, catenanes, crowns, cryptands, cylinders, dendrimers, fences,
footballene, gates, gondola, grids, helicates, helicenes, hinges, knots, ladders,
lanterna, lepidopterene, octopus, ovalene, pagodanes, podands, propellanes,
racks, rotaxanes, scorpiands, sepulchrands, speleands, spherands, staffanes,
stellanes, torand, trinacrene, tweezers, vessels, wires [ 4 ].
If we could see molecules, we would realize that in several cases they have high
symmetries and fascinating shapes [ 5 , 6 ]. We have a clue of that from CPK
molecular models (Corey-Pauling-Koltun space-filling models), which are one
hundred million time larger. Some examples of esthetically appealing molecules
are shown in Figs. 1 [ 7 , 8 ] and 2 [ 9 ]. As Primo Levi noticed [ 10 ]: “In fact it happens
also in chemistry as in architecture that 'beautiful' edifices, that is, symmetrical and
simple, are also the most sturdy: in short, the same thing happens with molecules as
with the cupolas of cathedrals or the arches of bridges.”
Molecules have indeed been taken as models for creating beautiful sculptures
(Fig. 3 )[ 11 ].
Fig. 1 Molecular architecture: two fascinating nanometer-scale supramolecular species and the
corresponding macroscopic counterparts. (a) Resorcarene-calixarene carcerand [ 7 ] and the
Battistero of Pisa (Italy). (b) Norbornylogous-type compound [ 8 ] and the Olina medieval bridge,
Modena (Italy). The geometries of the molecules are constructed by molecular mechanics
calculations