The Molecule of More

CREATIVITY AND MADNESS

stating simply that it was “a boy wearing a shirt, who doesn’t have any
socks on. I don’t see very much else.”
Many people have had the experience of waking from a dream, feel-
ing  as  if they  were  caught between two  worlds. Thinking is  more fluid,
making leaps from topic to topic, unconstrained by the rules of logic. In
fact, some people report that they experience their most creative thoughts
in  this  crack between the  two  worlds. The  H&N filter that  focuses our 
attention on the external world of the senses has not yet been reengaged;
dopamine circuits continue to fire unopposed, and ideas flow freely.

Friedrich August Kekulé became famous when he discovered the structure

of the benzene molecule, an important industrial chemical of that time.

Chemists had established that the molecule was composed of six carbon

atoms and six hydrogen atoms, which came as a surprise. Usually molecules

of this sort have more hydrogen atoms than carbon atoms. It was clear that

whatever structure the molecule took, it wasn’t an ordinary one.

The chemists tried to arrange the carbon atoms and the hydrogen atoms

in all sorts of ways that wouldn’t violate the rules of chemical bonding.

They knew that carbon atoms could be strung together like beads on a

string, and there could also be side branches coming off at right angles, but

none of the structures they tried were consistent with the known properties

of the benzene molecule. The nature of its true shape was a mystery. Kekulé

described the moment of insight when he realized what that shape was:

“There I sat and wrote my [chemistry textbook], but it did not proceed

well, my mind was elsewhere. I turned the chair to the fireplace and fell

half asleep. Again the atoms gamboled before my eyes. Smaller groups this

time kept modestly to the background. My mind’s eyes, trained by visions

of a similar kind, now distinguished larger formations of various shapes.

Long rows, in many ways more densely joined; everything in movement,

winding and turning like snakes. And look, what was that? One snake

grabbed its own tail, and mockingly the shape whirled before my eyes. As if

struck by lightning I awoke.”

The vision of the snake with its tail in its mouth, the ancient ouroboros,
led  to  the  insight that  the  six  carbon atoms of the  benzene molecule