While discussing the concept of Apotheosis as it appears in literature in class this morning, I recounted a story I heard years ago about the German organic chemist, Friedrich August Kekule. I've always remembered his name because my mother's name is the same as his (she's Augusta Friedrich), her uncle, Gustav Friedrich helped create the food additive MSG (if I have my family lore right), and because the story struck me as profoundly literary although it's from the realm of 19th century organic chemistry. The story goes something like this: Kekule was trying understand the structure for the benzene molecule, which was known to behave strangely. Until Kekule, no one had been able to describe, or draw, the structure of benzene in such a way that explained its odd duckyness (Kekule was circa 1850's--prior to electron microscopes and such). The poor chap couldn't see the answer to the problem. He sits down to take a nap one day, and has a "reverie", a vision, and he discovers the answer to his problem.
I'm no chemist. Of all the sciences, chemistry is the one discipline I could never crack. Which is odd, since I think I have a great uncle who invented MSG or something. Physics I loved. Math. Even economics seemed to reveal mystical insights on a fairly regular basis. But the chemistry nut never quite opened. That one pecan I could never get clear of the shell unless I turned the whole damned thing to dust. I could extend this metaphor into pistachios, too, but you probably get the picture.
But Kekule has this vision, this flash of insight that led to the answer. He saw a snake eating its own tail and this time-worn symbol revealed the shape of that which he'd been seeking. The carbon molecules of benzene share their electrons as I understand it. The electrons rotate within the outer shell of the molecule or some such thing.... My understanding of the chemistry is less important to me than the revelatory function of the symbol of the Ouroboros--the snake devouring its own tail in an eternal cycle of death and rebirth.
Kekule decides that this is the crux of the benzene structure. The benzene molecule is a ring, and the atoms share electrons within its outer shell--they rotate within ring, the "benzene ring". Royston M. Roberts, author of Serendipidty, Accidental Discoveries in Science, recounts the story told by Kekule regarding his "reverie":
I was sitting writing on my textbook, but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation; long rows sometimes more closely fitted together all twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis.
Brilliant. A mythological image answers a modern conundrum. It's fitting that Apotheosis and the Ouroboros symbolize the human problem of living in the field of time--how do we shed an old skin to be reborn to something new without stepping outside the circle?
.
I'm no chemist. Of all the sciences, chemistry is the one discipline I could never crack. Which is odd, since I think I have a great uncle who invented MSG or something. Physics I loved. Math. Even economics seemed to reveal mystical insights on a fairly regular basis. But the chemistry nut never quite opened. That one pecan I could never get clear of the shell unless I turned the whole damned thing to dust. I could extend this metaphor into pistachios, too, but you probably get the picture.
But Kekule has this vision, this flash of insight that led to the answer. He saw a snake eating its own tail and this time-worn symbol revealed the shape of that which he'd been seeking. The carbon molecules of benzene share their electrons as I understand it. The electrons rotate within the outer shell of the molecule or some such thing.... My understanding of the chemistry is less important to me than the revelatory function of the symbol of the Ouroboros--the snake devouring its own tail in an eternal cycle of death and rebirth.
Kekule decides that this is the crux of the benzene structure. The benzene molecule is a ring, and the atoms share electrons within its outer shell--they rotate within ring, the "benzene ring". Royston M. Roberts, author of Serendipidty, Accidental Discoveries in Science, recounts the story told by Kekule regarding his "reverie":
I was sitting writing on my textbook, but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation; long rows sometimes more closely fitted together all twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis.
Brilliant. A mythological image answers a modern conundrum. It's fitting that Apotheosis and the Ouroboros symbolize the human problem of living in the field of time--how do we shed an old skin to be reborn to something new without stepping outside the circle?
.
1 comments:
My brain hurts....
It's me, Suzanne but I'm too stupid to remember my google sign in!
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