Plenary Session, Award lecture
PS-004

Beautiful molecules! When and for whom?

A. Togni1
1ETH Zürich, Departement Chemie und Angewandte Biowissenschaften, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1, 8093 Zurich, togni@mac.com

It is not uncommon that chemists make aesthetic judgements about molecules. Where do such judgements come from? Do they have a general legitimacy? What are the criteria chemists apply when they say that a particular molecule is beautiful? Are there ugly molecules? How does aesthetic appreciation of the molecular world compare with the more common one of the macroscopic world? These are some of the questions the presentation shall critically address.