New Gems from Ochem

Chemistry isn't real and I can prove it!

Ask any sufficiently knowledgeable chemistry professor (note: there is no actual guarantee of finding said professor) what are the fundamental concepts key to understanding all of organic chemistry, he/she will probably tell you transition states and resonance forms. If you can understand these you've got the rest made. But here's the problem, transition states are theoretical structures necessary to explain chemical reactions. These theoretical structures exist for 0 time, meaning they exist but are instantly converted into the next stage along the path to chemical nirvana. Similarly resonance forms are all possible other configurations of electrons that could give the same structure. The thing about resonance structures is that any given resonance structure doesn't exist. What we see is only a composite of all possible hypothetical other possibilities (this has interesting implications for the universe as a whole, but we'll get to that in a bit.), each possibility in an of itself does not exist. A scientist by the name of John Robert's likened resonance structures to a rhinoceros. If you were to describe a rhino to someone from fantasy land ( no- not chemistry, fairy tail fantasy land) you might describe a rhino as a cross between a dragon and a unicorn, it has the tough hide of a dragon, the bulk and temper of a dragon, but the horn and hooves of a unicorn. Neither the dragon nor the unicorn exist, but the composite, the ugly looking magical mule made by hybridizing the two does. The rhino is real, but the dragon and the unicorn aren't. (We spent 3 hours in class today discussing how we are all made out of dragons and unicorns.)

We now have all of necessary pieces, lets now construct our argument shall we. Organic Chemistry is founded upon the ideas of transition states and resonance forms. Yet, neither transition states, nor resonance forms are real. Both exist for 0 time! Oh yeah, and you can't see them either. So if I were to tell you the world runs because of really tiny things you can't see powered and explained by things that don't really exist, would you believe me or lock me up in a loony bin? Chemistry is no better than a treatise on gnome physics. (and while you're looking up that you can also check out http://gijoe.wikia.com/wiki/Joepedia_-_The_G.I._Joe_Wiki)

So we've established that chemistry isn't real, but its seems to work. Maybe we can extrapolate something useful from this information after all. For kicks, lets see where our thought processes take us if we apply the ideas of chemistry to religion. Physics says that there could be infinitely many possible universes, chemistry says there could be infinitely many resonance structures. In chemistry we learn that the actual structure of a compound is roughly the average of all possible resonance states. Maybe there really only is one universe, but it is an average of all possible other universes, maybe that is why our universe is the best of all possible universes. This could explain the curvature of the universe and why it is so precisely tuned--because it is an average, an average of universes that theoretically could have worked, some that didn't these being akin to the minor resonance structures, representing a smaller contribution. And the result is just one with some aspects of many, potentially infinitely many others. If our universe is a resonance structure of other universes maybe we can somehow use Fourier analysis to see how many components are universe is comprised of?

That's the first thing I pondered today while the teacher told us of unicorns and dragons. The second thing came about when he suggested that our drawings of resonance structures are purely a human construction, an artefact of the human mind if you will. This got me thinking about a form of microscopy called atomic force microscopy. A common artefact of this form of microscopy is imaging of the tip. The cantilever that creates the images will occasionally run into something that will produce and image of the thing supposed to be producing the image. Its like taking a picture of the camera, but on accident, and on the atomic scale. Regardless, of how its done occasionally an image of the imager is captured within the image itself. And here's where the spiritual side comes in. The Bible says that man is made in God's image. The LDS scriptures extend this in the Book of Moses 6:63 citing that all things bear testimony of God. If this is true, this then is the becomes THE purpose for science--To learn all we can of this universe, and by doing so study the very face of God himself! So why do we study astronomy? Because "darkness moved upon the face of the deep!" God is watching us, and if we are watching, we are in turn watching him.

Peace. The Ultimate Big Brother is watching!