molecule

What Is a Molecule?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 21 May 2025 17:15:41 +0000

Surveys reveal that only 50 percent of people questioned know that the Earth goes around the sun once a year, and only 40 percent realize that electrons are smaller than atoms. That’s sad enough, but it is frightening that a mere 10 percent of the population understands what a molecule is. This is distressing, because everything in the physical world depends upon molecular action.

Infatuated With Chemistry

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 16:45:45 +0000

The fact that virtually everything in our life, be it digesting our food, using medications to treat disease, producing the clothes we wear, and even the grinding of our mental gears can be described in terms of chemical reactions is fascinating enough. But what has probably enthralled me the most, is that all these chemical reactions that involve various molecules engaging with each other, can be explained and understood without anyone ever having seen a molecule!

A Tale of Benzene Poisoning and a Snake Snaring Its Own Tail

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 16:38:54 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Professor Carl Santesson was intrigued.

The World’s Second Best Molecule of the Year

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 19:29:57 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic has made visible so many unsung heroes. Essential workers, parents who must work from home and care for their children, healthcare personnel. But there is one hero whose positive impact on the pandemic remains unsung and for good reasons. It doesn’t technically qualify as a hero because it’s not even alive. It’s a molecule but not any molecule, mind you. The prestigious journal Science dedicated its Christmas 1989 cover to throwing flowers at it, calling it “the molecule of the year.”