Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
4 Chemistry in the Words of Scientists and Writers
Language and chemistry have been beautifully combined by scientists and writers.
An outstanding example is the definition of a tree given by Richard Feynman [
12
]:
“A tree is essentially made of air and sun. When it is burned, it goes back to air, and
in the flaming heat is released the flaming heat of the sun which was bound in to
convert the air into tree, and in the ash is the small remnant of the part which did not
come from air that came from the solid earth, instead.”
It is difficult to explain by words the beauty and complexity of chemistry. Primo
Levi, a great writer and chemist, in his book
The Monkey's Wrench
[
13
], in talking
with a construction worker named Faussone succeeded in giving a poetical descrip-
tion of the profession of a chemist: “My profession, my real one, the profession
I studied in school and that has kept me alive so far is the profession of chemist.
I don't know if you have a clear idea of it, but it is a bit like yours; only we rig and
dismantle very tiny constructions. We are divided into two main branches, those
who rig and those who dismantle or break down, and both kinds are like blind
people with sensitive fingers. I say blind because, actually, the things we handle are
too small to be seen, even with the most powerful microscopes: so we have invented
various intelligent gadgets to recognize them without seeing them.
Those who
dismantle, the analytical chemists, in other words, have to be able to take a structure
apart piece by piece without damaging it, or at least without damaging it too much;
then they have to line up the pieces on the desk, naturally without ever seeing them,
but recognizing them one by one. Then, they say in what order the pieces were
attached.”
In another book entitled
The Periodic Table
[
14
], Primo Levi describes, in a
poetical and fascinating way, the endless travel of a carbon atom: “
...
firmly
clinging to two oxygen companions, it issued from the chimney and took the path
of the air.
...
It was caught by the wind, flung down on the earth, lifted ten
kilometers high. It was breathed in by a falcon, descending into its precipitous
lungs, but did not penetrate its rich blood and was expelled. It dissolved three times
in the water of the sea, one in the water of a cascading torrent, and again was
expelled. It traveled with the wind for eight years: now high, now low, on the sea
and among clouds, over forests, deserts, and limitless expanses of ice; then it
stumbled into capture and the organic adventure.
...
Our atom of carbon enters
the leaf, colliding with other innumerable molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. It
adheres to a large and complicated molecule that activates it, and simultaneously
receives the decisive message from the sky, in the flashing form of a packed of solar
light: in an instant, like an insect caught by a spider, it is separated from its oxygen,
combined with hydrogen and finally inserted in a chain, whether long or short does
not matter, but is the chain of life.” This nice story shows that there cannot be
borders for chemistry and, most important, it underlines the tight connections
among all forms of matter present on Earth.
Chemistry, words, and life are amazingly blended in the recent poem
Sustainable
Development
[
15
] by Roald Hoffmann, a chemist, poet and philosopher, who
...
