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| A chick in a vial with a biological organization. You can buy this cute thing in here. |
You have a chick in a vial. Then, you smash the chick into
liquid. If you compare it before and after the process, what was lost? This is
called the “Paul Weiss thought experiment.” His answer is “biological
organization.” The point is the importance of the organization or superstructure.
Even if you have the same components, if there is functionally constructed
organization, it does not work as it should.
Noteworthy, this is an “imaginary” thought experiment. If
you actually do the experiment, not only will a chicken lose the biological
organization, but you will also lose something important: humanity!
The point of this story is how important superstructures are important for us. Without properly constructed structures, things don't work as they should.
In chemistry, you can also create beautiful superstructures from molecules and nanocrystals, and the forces to create superstructures are called "supramolecular interaction." Given the very importance of superstructures, you may call supramolecular interaction as the source of the importance.
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| "Organization" is important in our human society too! |
The representing supramolecular interactions are van der Waals forces, electrostatic forces, hydrogen bonding, and magnetic forces. Such interactions create various materials ranging from a biological molecule such as DNA to nanocrystal superlattices.
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| A picture of a computer model of a nanocrystal superlattices. |
Wanna study intermolecular interaction? Here is an excellent textbook by Prof. Israelachvili. This is a good book. I learned a lot from it.
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| The number of citation for this book is more than 32000! |
Good luck with making your molecules interacted nicely!
