The Beauty of Chemical Compounds

The beauty of compounds increases with purity, but ironically the greatest beauty occurs when the right impurities and conditions come along. Many pure substances in the laboratory are either dull, white powders or coloured and dull. If they are dissolved and allowed to crystallize slowly, their geometry becomes apparent to the naked eye, and light interacts with crystals far more elaborately. In nature’s laboratory, impurities, heat, and pressure help convert compounds and elements into minerals. These new forms retain their basic ratios of bonded atoms, but now minerals, as the philosopher Santayana would say, objectify pleasure—in other words, they become beautiful. Scroll down to see a few examples:

	Mineral	Main Chemical Compound
Pic from http://www.mineralatlas.com/mineral%20photos/M/marcasite2.jpg	Marcasite(FeS2)	FeS2
Pic from Wikipedia.	Bornite(Cu5FeS4)	Cu5FeS4
Pic from http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/minerals/calcite.htm	Calcite	CaCO3
Pic from http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/earthsci/imagearchive/realgar.jpg	Realgar	AsS
Pic from author.	Amethyst	SiO2
Pic from http://www.sedgwickmuseum.org/education/gallery.html	Sulfur	S
Pic from author.	Sucrose (not really a mineral but I formed this crystal of a common organic compound by forgetting about a saturated solution in the fridge.)	C12H22O11