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A molecule with a ring to it

Nature Chemistry volume 7, pages 6–7 (2015)Cite this article

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Michelle Francl wonders what makes benzene resonate with chemists.

January 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of chemistry's most famous waking dream — the publication of August Kekulé's paper proposing that the hexavalent benzene nucleus was cyclic, a notion that many years later Kekulé claimed2 came to him in a daydream. Musing on what makes a genius at a gathering in Berlin's Rathaus in 1890 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his publication, Kekulé recounted3 the vision, in which a snaking line of atoms “captured its own tail and whirled mockingly before [his] eyes.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Michelle Francl is Professor of Chemistry on the Clowes Fund for Science and Public Policy and is in the Department of Chemistry at Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010-2899, USA,

    Michelle Francl

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  1. Michelle Francl
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Correspondence to Michelle Francl.

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Francl, M. A molecule with a ring to it. Nature Chem 7, 6–7 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2136

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