6 ms·

Gallery – Making Molecules

252 points by HaoZeke 3y ago

Ecco 3y ago
I got super confused by the "Page 47" logo. Is it the publisher? Sounds like a pretty poor choice: color me dumb but I did look for page 46 and 48...
- cratermoon 3y ago
  A google search leads me to think Page 47 is a reference to the National Treasure franchise https://nationaltreasure.fandom.com/wiki/Page_47 https://nationaltreasure.fandom.com/wiki/Page_47
AlbertCory 3y ago
My brief extension course introduction to chem and mol bio gave me an enormous appreciation for chemistry illustrations. Molecular Biology of the Cell is one of the best textbooks ever written.
- gww 3y ago
  Beautiful book I used it in undergrad. The only problem with the book is its size; it's terrible to lug around in a backpack.
  - AlbertCory 3y ago
    Yep. Big, heavy book.
- dannyphantom 3y ago
  They really are something, right? My boyfriend had/has an open offer to jump into a career in scientific illustration if he wants to (but he's in love with his museum job). His neighbor has been doing it for decades and her work has been in many of the mass-produced scientific textbooks used at the high-school and college level - it was really cool to see some of her actual sketches and prints when visiting his parents a few years ago
  - selimthegrim 3y ago
    My aunt is a medical illustrator but had to give up the career for lack of work years ago
_m8fo 3y ago
For: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03ddbb5/t/6232e97176053063d505cfc2/1647503729983/TLC.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03dd... Is there supposed to be a line through some of the center?
- ampersandy 3y ago
  It looks like they've copied the template/page from a previous diagram file and forgot to remove one of the lines, probably just an accident.
solardev 3y ago
Out of curiosity, what do professional chemists refer to when they need a quick reference for something like this? Is it all in their heads by that point, or is there special software that they use every day (some sort of knowledge base type thing...?) or how does it all work? As a software dev I think I take it for granted that I can look up anything I need to in a second or two. How does it work for other professions with special knowledge bubbles?
- analog31 3y ago
  They debate it at the supper table (my childhood). ;-)
- scentoni 3y ago
  Most of what's in these handouts, and much, much else, is just in their heads--at least the part that's relevant to their field, obviously an organic chemist is going to have slightly different things memorized than a geochemist. For things that you have to look up, for decades the first thing you reach for would be the CRC Handbook https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRC_Handbook_of_Chemistry_and_Physics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRC_Handbook_of_Chemistry_and_... although it's on the web now https://hbcp.chemnetbase.com/contents/ContentsSearch.xhtml?dswid=-6576 https://hbcp.chemnetbase.com/contents/ContentsSearch.xhtml?d... as well as other reference materials.
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  MOSTLY UNINFORMED OPINION A lot of special knowledge is also available within seconds on the internet, but you (solardev) don't know where. Part of being in the bubble is that you know where to find things that are in the bubble. For an example that comes easily to my mind, a while ago there was an HN thread where someone asked what made a cross-language dictionary (e.g. English-Japanese) good or bad, and I responded with a link to FrameNet ( https://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/ https://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/ ) and the observation that I'd like dictionaries to include information about how to supply relevant semantic roles to the word you're looking up, which they almost never do. There's nothing stopping anyone else from looking up FrameNet and seeing what it's about. (Though academic papers on frame semantics might be less accessible.) The obstacle is in knowing that it's there in the first place.
tzs 3y ago
In the one in the third column of the second row, "Drawing Molecules" [1], the second box shows how to go from a structural representation to a skeletal diagram. The third step of that is to remove all C-H bonds, removing both the H and the bond. But in the example given it retains a C-H bond. Why is that? [1] https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03ddbb5/t/624001a693d6102f09ac2301/1648361896212/Drawings.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03dd...
- ftigds 3y ago
  I would think it's because it's part of the aldehyde functional group.
- rsfern 3y ago
  That C-H bond is part of an aldehyde functional group, normally those hydrogens are not removed (I think because it helps for pattern matching the functional group) Usually it’s just hydrogens on hydrocarbon chain backbone or aromatic rings that are deleted Functional group sheet: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03ddbb5/t/6236c92abe494315a198f9a6/1647757611493/FG_1Pager.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03dd...
xyst 3y ago
I think I actually paid money for similar printed handouts. I think it was for SAT/ACT concepts or some college course. How naive I was back then.
- dylan604 3y ago
  Back then for me was well before the internet, so these kinds of things were pure gold. Now, if you can't find it in a quick web search, it's probably not important
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  But they probably didn't have ads on them.
thewanderer1983 3y ago
Another great one is Compound Interest. https://www.compoundchem.com/infographics/ https://www.compoundchem.com/infographics/
0xcde4c3db 3y ago
I find this a little hilarious and probably sorely needed as someone who was handed what the instructor literally referred to as the "art of the clides" (the heading "Chart of the Nuclides" having been cut off via photocopier margins), in what turned out to practically be a graduate-level physics course at a nominally undergraduate institution.
dylan604 3y ago
When I was in high school, one of the extracurricular academic competitions was at a local college. I had time to kill and was browsing through the campus bookstore. They had a rack of 8.5x11 laminated "cheat sheets" of chemistry, physics, geometry that these remind me of. They were pretty cheap, and the nerd that I am spent my lunch money on buying a set of these. At first, I wasn't even taking classes for the subject matter, but I knew that I would be and I wasn't sure if I'd be back to this store. After taking the appropriate classes, they were very useful.
fictkgyicf 3y ago
Maybe these are beautiful, but whoever made them is blatantly not a professional graphic designer or typographer. From a graphic design POV, it's hard to justify rating these higher than 8/10.
- kipukun 3y ago
  Why not explain that POV?
  - light_hue_1 3y ago
    Not a garphic designer, but someone who is anal about graphics in papers. I don't want to detract from how great this is! But, if you want to be anal about graphics... There are a lot of little mistakes that could be improved on. The text isn't justified and sort of meanders left and right. Nothing is quite correctly centered. Little bugs like stray lines (in the middle top one, TLC). Capitalization is really inconsistent. Sometimes there are paragraphs, sometimes there are separate sentences. Sometimes there are sentence fragments. Some of the graphics don't follow standards for contrast, like the 2nd from the top middle, black on blue is very hard to read for someone with a low vision. Then there's light blue on white. The spacing is really inconsistent horizontally. There's pretty uniform space on the left (usually) but on the right it's clear things just end when they do sort of squeezed in. Sometimes it's the other way around and the left is squeezed in. Some of the fonts are basically impossible for me to read, never mind someone with dyslexia. Look at this one, 2nd page, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03ddbb5/t/62edd4c3a0206c077b3426a4/1659753678215/MM21_LeChatelierV1.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03dd... Sometimes arrows are thick and black, sometimes they're hollow, sometimes they're much thicker and red. That's just a few. Still awesome though!
    - jamesash 3y ago
      On one hand I love this level of nitpicking. On the other hand, by the standards of what an undergraduate organic chemistry student is looking for from a free online resource, and given that it is just one guy doing this, in his spare time, I think this is absolutely fine. (I have a competing website on organic chemistry and I think this guy does a much better job on graphics than I do.)

252 points by HaoZeke 3y ago

Ecco 3y ago

I got super confused by the "Page 47" logo. Is it the publisher? Sounds like a pretty poor choice: color me dumb but I did look for page 46 and 48...

cratermoon 3y ago
A google search leads me to think Page 47 is a reference to the National Treasure franchise https://nationaltreasure.fandom.com/wiki/Page_47 https://nationaltreasure.fandom.com/wiki/Page_47

AlbertCory 3y ago

My brief extension course introduction to chem and mol bio gave me an enormous appreciation for chemistry illustrations. Molecular Biology of the Cell is one of the best textbooks ever written.

gww 3y ago
Beautiful book I used it in undergrad. The only problem with the book is its size; it's terrible to lug around in a backpack.
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  Yep. Big, heavy book.
dannyphantom 3y ago
They really are something, right? My boyfriend had/has an open offer to jump into a career in scientific illustration if he wants to (but he's in love with his museum job). His neighbor has been doing it for decades and her work has been in many of the mass-produced scientific textbooks used at the high-school and college level - it was really cool to see some of her actual sketches and prints when visiting his parents a few years ago
- selimthegrim 3y ago
  My aunt is a medical illustrator but had to give up the career for lack of work years ago

_m8fo 3y ago

For: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03ddbb5/t/6232e97176053063d505cfc2/1647503729983/TLC.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03dd... Is there supposed to be a line through some of the center?

ampersandy 3y ago
It looks like they've copied the template/page from a previous diagram file and forgot to remove one of the lines, probably just an accident.

solardev 3y ago

Out of curiosity, what do professional chemists refer to when they need a quick reference for something like this? Is it all in their heads by that point, or is there special software that they use every day (some sort of knowledge base type thing...?) or how does it all work? As a software dev I think I take it for granted that I can look up anything I need to in a second or two. How does it work for other professions with special knowledge bubbles?

analog31 3y ago
They debate it at the supper table (my childhood). ;-)
scentoni 3y ago
Most of what's in these handouts, and much, much else, is just in their heads--at least the part that's relevant to their field, obviously an organic chemist is going to have slightly different things memorized than a geochemist. For things that you have to look up, for decades the first thing you reach for would be the CRC Handbook https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRC_Handbook_of_Chemistry_and_Physics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRC_Handbook_of_Chemistry_and_... although it's on the web now https://hbcp.chemnetbase.com/contents/ContentsSearch.xhtml?dswid=-6576 https://hbcp.chemnetbase.com/contents/ContentsSearch.xhtml?d... as well as other reference materials.
thaumasiotes 3y ago
MOSTLY UNINFORMED OPINION A lot of special knowledge is also available within seconds on the internet, but you (solardev) don't know where. Part of being in the bubble is that you know where to find things that are in the bubble. For an example that comes easily to my mind, a while ago there was an HN thread where someone asked what made a cross-language dictionary (e.g. English-Japanese) good or bad, and I responded with a link to FrameNet ( https://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/ https://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/ ) and the observation that I'd like dictionaries to include information about how to supply relevant semantic roles to the word you're looking up, which they almost never do. There's nothing stopping anyone else from looking up FrameNet and seeing what it's about. (Though academic papers on frame semantics might be less accessible.) The obstacle is in knowing that it's there in the first place.

tzs 3y ago

In the one in the third column of the second row, "Drawing Molecules" [1], the second box shows how to go from a structural representation to a skeletal diagram. The third step of that is to remove all C-H bonds, removing both the H and the bond. But in the example given it retains a C-H bond. Why is that? [1] https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03ddbb5/t/624001a693d6102f09ac2301/1648361896212/Drawings.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03dd...

ftigds 3y ago
I would think it's because it's part of the aldehyde functional group.
rsfern 3y ago
That C-H bond is part of an aldehyde functional group, normally those hydrogens are not removed (I think because it helps for pattern matching the functional group) Usually it’s just hydrogens on hydrocarbon chain backbone or aromatic rings that are deleted Functional group sheet: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03ddbb5/t/6236c92abe494315a198f9a6/1647757611493/FG_1Pager.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03dd...

xyst 3y ago

I think I actually paid money for similar printed handouts. I think it was for SAT/ACT concepts or some college course. How naive I was back then.

dylan604 3y ago
Back then for me was well before the internet, so these kinds of things were pure gold. Now, if you can't find it in a quick web search, it's probably not important
SoftTalker 3y ago
But they probably didn't have ads on them.

thewanderer1983 3y ago

Another great one is Compound Interest. https://www.compoundchem.com/infographics/ https://www.compoundchem.com/infographics/

0xcde4c3db 3y ago

I find this a little hilarious and probably sorely needed as someone who was handed what the instructor literally referred to as the "art of the clides" (the heading "Chart of the Nuclides" having been cut off via photocopier margins), in what turned out to practically be a graduate-level physics course at a nominally undergraduate institution.

dylan604 3y ago

When I was in high school, one of the extracurricular academic competitions was at a local college. I had time to kill and was browsing through the campus bookstore. They had a rack of 8.5x11 laminated "cheat sheets" of chemistry, physics, geometry that these remind me of. They were pretty cheap, and the nerd that I am spent my lunch money on buying a set of these. At first, I wasn't even taking classes for the subject matter, but I knew that I would be and I wasn't sure if I'd be back to this store. After taking the appropriate classes, they were very useful.

fictkgyicf 3y ago

Maybe these are beautiful, but whoever made them is blatantly not a professional graphic designer or typographer. From a graphic design POV, it's hard to justify rating these higher than 8/10.

kipukun 3y ago
Why not explain that POV?
- light_hue_1 3y ago
  Not a garphic designer, but someone who is anal about graphics in papers. I don't want to detract from how great this is! But, if you want to be anal about graphics... There are a lot of little mistakes that could be improved on. The text isn't justified and sort of meanders left and right. Nothing is quite correctly centered. Little bugs like stray lines (in the middle top one, TLC). Capitalization is really inconsistent. Sometimes there are paragraphs, sometimes there are separate sentences. Sometimes there are sentence fragments. Some of the graphics don't follow standards for contrast, like the 2nd from the top middle, black on blue is very hard to read for someone with a low vision. Then there's light blue on white. The spacing is really inconsistent horizontally. There's pretty uniform space on the left (usually) but on the right it's clear things just end when they do sort of squeezed in. Sometimes it's the other way around and the left is squeezed in. Some of the fonts are basically impossible for me to read, never mind someone with dyslexia. Look at this one, 2nd page, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03ddbb5/t/62edd4c3a0206c077b3426a4/1659753678215/MM21_LeChatelierV1.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62185f3b81809a6fd03dd... Sometimes arrows are thick and black, sometimes they're hollow, sometimes they're much thicker and red. That's just a few. Still awesome though!
  - jamesash 3y ago
    On one hand I love this level of nitpicking. On the other hand, by the standards of what an undergraduate organic chemistry student is looking for from a free online resource, and given that it is just one guy doing this, in his spare time, I think this is absolutely fine. (I have a competing website on organic chemistry and I think this guy does a much better job on graphics than I do.)