ERROR 1
ERROR 1
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
Password and Confirm password must match.
If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)
ERROR 2
ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.
Xiaolin Liu was looking to purify polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and found this rose. The same molecular rhythm of single and double bonds that gives such molecules useful electronic properties also imparts color. Here, the hue and pattern emerged in the bottom of a flask as Liu, a postdoc in Jeff Moore’s lab at the University of Illinois, removed the dichloromethane solvent from a sample of her compound. A literary soul, Liu thought of a line from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” She says, “As an organic chemist, I find that chemistry is my rose.”
Submitted by Xiaolin Liu
Do science. Take pictures. Win money. Enter our photo contest here.
Join the conversation
Contact the reporter
Submit a Letter to the Editor for publication
Engage with us on X