The following excerpts are taken from the article “Exploring science visually“ that was originally written by Evelyn Pae and published in the RPI Every Day Matters blog on 13 October 2021.
“To study chemistry is to study the art of sequential storytelling. Each step in a chemical reaction is a new progression of events: the loss of an electron, the formation of a bond, and the introduction of a catalyst. The same actors — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen — dance through scene after wondrous scene, re-enacting classic sequences in labs across the nation and in innumerable natural environments.
Look deeply into an organic chemistry reaction mechanism diagram and you can see that it is like a step-by-step cartoon — a highly precise, scientific cartoon and a visualization in symbols of the elusive processes that cannot be perceived with the naked eye. It was a fascination with this type of scientific imagery that inspired me to create Molecular Tales of Marine Dissolved Organic Matter with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Professor Sasha Wagner, who is supervising my undergraduate research in dissolved organic matter biogeochemistry this semester. Molecular Tales, a product of chemistry nerdery and quarantine boredom, is an illustrated booklet that follows the story of four different organic molecules, each with its own provenance and character, through their respective journeys to the sea.”
“Science communication is a field that I believe will only become more relevant in the future. It doesn’t always have to be big and flashy. Like our zine, it could be a slim booklet that fits into a pocket, refusing to take itself too seriously. Or, like dissolved organic carbon itself, it could be there in the background of your daily life: always present, critical and fundamental, yet often unnoticed until you learn a new way of looking at it. I hope Molecular Tales offers readers a new — and fun — way of looking at the world we live in.”
The zine is freely available and can be viewed as an e-booklet or downloaded as a PDF file.
