Vision
is a sense deeply anchored in our mind. It not only allows us
to "look," but far more valuable, vision helps us
to "see." Thus, the skill of image makingsketching,
painting, or photographyis a universally cherished art.
In
chemistry, molecular sketches and 3D representations are among
the tools used to help us visualize and understand structures
and reaction mechanisms. A sketch can also be a memorization
technique, that teachers of all disciplines and grades use daily.
In this issue of CI, two instances remind us that "a
sketch is worth a thousand words." The first, extracted
from Margolskees contribution to a PAC special
topic issue on the science of sweeteners, is appropriately sweet.
And, it speaks for itself;
see page 26. The second one, which I find delightful, comes
from Professor Perrins very private collection that was
on display at the 16th International Conference on Physical
Organic Chemistry (San Diego, CA, USA, August 2002); it is called
Distillation
II,
see page 33.
While
CI is obviously not an artsy newsmagazine, I often feel
that we should put more thinking into sketches, and use "images"
to help overcome the complexities and difficulties of our common
language. After all, this might also help to improve the "image"
of chemistry!
Fabienne
Meyers
[email protected]