Article originally from American Chemistry magazine.

Specially fabricated large- scale models of the selected molecules—including buckyball (above)—reveal their 3-D structures.

From polyethylene to Prozac, some of the 20th century’s most significant chemical combinations have gone on tour. They are currently featured in the traveling exhibition
"Molecules That Matter," organized by the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) in Philadelphia, Penn., and the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at
Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The exhibition showcases 10 organic molecules that have had profound implications, featuring one for each of the century’s 10 decades. It uses these examples—depicted with large-scale "ball-and-stick" models, 2.5 billion times their actual size—to examine how our capacity to understand and reshape matter at the atomic and molecular levels has led to a broad array of innovations in housing, clothing, fuel, and medicine, among other areas.

A board of chemists from higher education, industry, and CHF selected the molecules, with a final review by two
Nobel Laureates. The resulting list includes:

• Aspirin, an acetylsalicylic acid used to relieve pain or reduce fever
• isooctane, a key component of gasoline
• penicillin, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections
• polyethylene, a thermoplastic used in plastic bags and other products
• nylon, the first commercially successful synthetic polymer, used in everything from toothbrushes to parachutes
• deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a molecule containing genetic instructions for the development and functions of a living organism or virus
• progestin, a synthetic molecule used in hormonal contraception and hormone replacement therapy
• dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), a synthetic pesticide
• Prozac, a form of fluoxetine hydrochloride commonly used as an antidepressant
• buckminsterfullerene, also known as buckyball, a relatively recently discovered carbon molecule whose structure suggests applications for carbon nanotubes, including high-strength composites.

In so doing, the board chose a balanced range of compounds, including pharmaceuticals, consumer-industrial polymers, and unique molecules. DNA, in particular, emerged as an obvious choice that not only is one of the great scientific discoveries of the past century, but will also become more important as its workings are better understood in the coming years.

The exhibition juxtaposes contemporary art and historical objects and documents with the 10 specially fabricated large-scale models, which reveal each molecule’s three-dimensional (3-D) structure and explain its scientific importance. The models’ scale helps convey that while molecules themselves are too small for the naked eye to see, their impact is enormous.

In addition to Molecules That Matter, CHF has a new, permanent 17,000-square- foot, two-story facility called "Making Modernity" that showcases hundreds of scientific artifacts.

Molecules That Matter is not intended to be a conclusive or comprehensive view of science, but rather a speculative, wide-ranging starting point. With accompanying published and online resources, the exhibition proposes that the scientific understanding of our world at the molecular level continues to recast some of our most fundamental notions, as it has transformed our expectations for human health and longevity, radically changed the material conditions of our daily lives, and even altered our relationship with nature.

"It encourages visitors to become better-informed and more highly engaged citizens of our rapidly changing, often troubled world," says the foreword in the exhibition’s catalog, written by Arnold Thackray, CHF Chancellor, and Philip Glotzbach, President of Skidmore College.

"Our goal is to open visitors’ minds to the role of molecular chemistry in all of our lives, to provoke new insights, and to make the invisible world of molecules visible," says Raymond J. Giguere, former Professor of Chemistry at Skidmore and one of the show’s curators.

The exhibition was launched in late 2007 at the aforementioned Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, where it ran until April 2008, then debuted at CHF’s newly expanded facility in Philadelphia in August 2008.

The third stop was the College of Wooster Art Museum in Wooster, Ohio, from March 24 to May 10, 2009, after which it is moving on to Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and finally Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.

With files from the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF).

« back