What's your take on spirituality? Do you believe in divine intervention? Specially if you are a person of science.
Energy needs of 20th century have led the mankind to evolve from whaling in deep oceans to scavenging even deeper towards the core of the Earth. Fossil fuels did not just galvanize the industrial growth but have become the backbone of transportation across the globe. But all of this wouldn't have been possible without our understanding of Hydrocarbons. Benzene in particular, proved to one of the trickiest devils for scientific community. Its empirical formula C6H6 was known for long already, only the structural representation remained a tough nut to crack due to a high polyunsaturated 1:1 Carbon Hydrogen ratio.
Friedrich August Kekulé was a passionate German man of science who devoted significant amount of his life in solving this riddle. The theory he proposed about Benzene's structure, eventually turned out to be a pivotal point in the modern Chemistry.
7 years after it was discovered that Carbon can form bonds with up to 4 atoms, Kekulé still found himself at his wits' end in his quest to demystify Benzene. Whatever linear and layered structures he conceptualized, they never lead to a stable form. Then one night Kekulé had the strangest of dreams. In his dream, he saw a large serpent eating its own tail.
Known as Ouroboros or Endless knot, this obscure belief in alchemy was prevalent among many ancient cultures. How Kekulé came to see this vision remains a mystery. Perhaps a childhood German fable or a fiction book he read lately, who knows? But the point is, it compelled him to try thinking of Benzene now as a closed loop structure and suddenly it all made perfect sense as a stable symmetry.
This study on Benzene's structure proved to be path-breaking, as many of its derivatives became a household name and still prevalent used as petroleum products, rubbers and solvents, and in chemical components for many other industries.
All because of a mystical dream vision of a fairy tale Serpent.
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