In "Through the Eyes of a Chemist," her latest piece for the journal Nature Chemistry, Francl ponders "the potential disconnect between what I expect my students to take away from a term's work, and what might best serve those who will not end up working in science-related fields."
She goes on to give "a list of four fundamental concepts that I suggest can help cultivate a chemical imagination in non-chemists."
Below is a taste of what she writes...
Taking a cue from Martin Luther and sola scriptura, I would tack sola figura to the top of my list for any audience: only form — the location of atoms relative to each other in space — dictates function...
Next on my list, atoms; they make up everything...
The third lens that organic chemists in particular wield with vigour is electrostatics: opposite charges attract, like charges repel...
Last and by no means least, I would include in my small basis the notion that chemists use templates and patterns to organize what they know about reactivity and behaviour. Critically, these patterns have predictive power.
Read the full article here.