Parents Went to Karlsruhe and All I Got Was This Lousy Tee-Shirt

FIGURE 263. Satirical celebration of Kekule s benzene structures by the German Chemical Society in 1886 (see E. Heilbronner and J.D. Dunitz, Reflections on Symmetry, VCH, Weinheim, 1993, p. 52 courtesy of John Wiley-VCH). 

Just as Picasso had transformed art hy allowing the viewer to see within and behind things, so Kekule had transformed chemistry. Chemical properties arose from the internal structures of molecules, which could now be seen and read through the experienced optic of the analytical and synthetic chemist. 

The Norton History of Chemistry, Norton, New York, 1993, p. 256. 

MY PARENTS WENT TO KARLSRUHE AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY TEE-SHIRT  

I apologize, gentle reader, for this tacky take-off on the archetypal All-American souvenir tee-shirt. In all likelihood, the 140 chemists who came to the pleasant Rhineland town of Karlsruhe in 1860 did little boating and souvenir shopping. Human endeavors, such as science, are collective efforts. We need human inter- 

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