the.com/molecule
two or more atoms holding hands so tightly they forget they were ever single.
means The smallest unit of a chemical compound, made of two or more atoms bonded together, that still retains the properties of that substance.
from From French 'molécule,' borrowed in the 18th century from the scientific Latin coinage 'molecula' — a diminutive of Latin 'moles,' meaning 'mass' or 'bulk.' So the word literally tags it as a 'tiny mass,' a little lump of matter. That same 'moles' gave us 'molar' and lurks inside 'demolish' (to un-mass something) and 'molest' (originally 'to burden'). The term spread through the new chemistry of the era as scientists needed a name for matter's smallest meaningful clumps.
- oxygen pairs
- the air's O2 is two atoms bonded, never solo
- DNA giant
- one human chromosome is a single molecule
- smell trigger
- noses detect molecules floating off everything you sniff
- buckyball
- 60 carbons can form a soccer-ball molecule
water — h₂o, the most abundant molecule on earth's surface
glucose — c₆h₁₂o₆, primary fuel for cellular respiration in all living organisms
deoxyribonucleic acid — dna, the molecule carrying genetic instructions in every known organism
hemoglobin — iron-containing protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout human bodies