The interface between physics, chemistry (and materials science) can be a fascinating one. Here I show a carbon nanotorus, devised by physicists[cite]10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.217206[/cite] a few years ago. It is a theoretical species, and was predicted to have a colossal paramagnetic moment . Carbon nanotorus.

Libraries (and librarians) are evolving rapidly. Thus a week or so ago one of our dynamic librarians here, approached some PhD students and academics to ask them how they used “ Web 2.0 ” (thanks Jenny!). The result was edited (thanks John!) and uploaded, where you can see it below (embedded in this post, I might add, using HTML5). No doubt there is more of this genre to come.

In earlier posts, I alluded to what might make DNA wind into a left or a right-handed helix. Here I switch the magnification of our structural microscope up a notch to take a look at some more inner secrets. A fragment of a single chain of DNA, taken from a Z-helix.

At a recent conference, I talked about what books might look like in the near future, with the focus on mobile devices such as the iPad. I ended by asserting that it is a very exciting time to be an aspiring book author, with one’s hands on (what matters), the content . Ways of expressing that content are currently undergoing an explosion of new metaphors, and we might even expect some of them to succeed!

One of my chemical heroes is William Perkin, who in 1856 famously (and accidentally) made the dye mauveine as an 18 year old whilst a student of August von Hofmann, the founder of the Royal College of Chemistry (at what is now  Imperial College London). Perkin went on to found the British synthetic dyestuffs and perfumeries industries.

The Möbius band is an experimental delight. In its original forms, it came flat-packed as below.

In 1953, the model of the DNA molecule led to what has become regarded as the most famous scientific diagram of the 20th century.

In my blogroll, I link to Tim Gowers’ blog. He is a very eminent mathematician, and so it is interesting to see what motivates him to write a blog about mathematics. This latest post goes a large way to explaining why. He starts by speculating about the features of some piece of research that might render it conventionally unpublishable, highlighting two reasons; (1) it is not original and (2) it does not lead anywhere conclusive.

Chemistry gets complex very rapidly. Consider the formula CH ₃ NO as the topic for a tutorial in introductory chemistry. I challenge my group (of about 8 students) to draw as many different molecules as they can using exactly those atoms. I imply that perhaps each of them might find a different structure; this normally brings disbelieving expressions to their faces.

Curly arrows are something most students of chemistry meet fairly early on. They rapidly become hard-wired into the chemists brain. They are also uncontroversial! Or are they? Consider the following very simple scheme. Curly arrow pushing It represents protonation of an alkene by an acid.