Monday, March 18, 2013

Comic-Book Elements

One of the ways to tell if you're a "chemist" or not is to ask yourself a simple question: Do the elements feel like different personalities to you, or not? If the answer is "yes" then you may be a chemist.

Here's a tumblr site where an artist has gone through and given a personality to each element, with a one-sentence factoid about each. These may be considered character designs for a Justice-League style crossover comic spectacular about certain complex chemical reactions ... well, a guy can dream, can't he?

These characters help to make a simple but fundamental point: chemistry is like a sprawling novel, with personalities joining and rejoining according to simple rules, making flash and fire, sound and fury, when they can. If you can get this point subconsciously and intuitively, I think you will do better on your next chemistry test!

And even though Kaycie D. doesn't (claim to) have much scientific training, I am sure that deep down, in the way that counts, Kaycie's an honorary chemist.

What does this say about the role of personality in defining the universe?

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