Anniversary campaign "My favorite molecule"

Cyclopropane is small, but very exciting. Above all, however, my neighbor at the bank drew a wonderfully playful picture of it in my poetry album at the beginning of our chemistry training.

Maren Bulmahn, Frankfurt

Curtisin is my personal favorite molecule because it 'accompanied' me during my thesis and for a long time afterwards. Due to a small amount, I was able to derive partial structures at the time, but unfortunately I could not predict the complete structure.

Only after further work could the structure of the dye be fully elucidated. This connection was unusual for boletus at the time and exemplarily reflects the fascination of natural product chemistry. Furthermore, the structure elucidation by Curtisin also shows that it took the work of several natural scientists to get a complete picture.

Martin Bröckelmann, Rüsselsheim

My personal favorite molecule is called formaldehyde. Internationally, this methanal can be easily assigned both because of its formula and because of its name, which sounds the same in many languages, and because of its authenticity, it has the highest social function, in particular because of its properties that encourage discussion. Based on the possibility to philosophize germanophon whether it is better or equivalent to formaldehyde, the communicative challenge increases because, depending on personal focus, it can be a short-lived biochemically vital body's own mediator or a classifiable cancer-promoting hazardous substance. Thanks to the activation of my laughing muscle proteins, this molecule makes me in a good mood and, thanks to sufficient concentration in the air I breathe, makes me cry as a warning when processing the Solutio Formaldehyde. It's a real love affair with all its ups and downs.
Erich Leitner, Bruck / Austria

One of my favorite molecules is vitamin B12 because it is one of the few organometallic compounds in nature and there catalyzes unusual rearrangements. For me it connects many areas of organic, organometallic, biochemical and pharmaceutical chemistry. In addition, the molecule went down as a milestone in the history of organic chemistry. In an unprecedented cooperation in the groups of Prof. A. Eschenmoser and Prof. RB Woodward, it was represented and characterized in a fully synthetic way for the first time in the 1970s.
Friedrich Kroll, Dülmen

My favorite element is silicon. Firstly, because the color and properties are very special. I find the gray-black color of the semi-metal, which has a metallic, but often very chic bronze to bluish sheen, particularly beautiful and fascinating. In addition, silicon is very important as a semi-metal and especially a semiconductor. Today's electronics industry would be unthinkable without the silicon used in processors and transistors. Silicon is not only the second most abundant element in the earth's shell because of its oxides, but it is also widespread throughout the world and can be found in various electronics in each of us.

Tino Beste, Münster

Serotonin, the happiness hormone, is involved in the regulation of emotions, learning processes and endocrine functions.

Anke Dreyer, Aachen

Let's talk about small rings. Do you know the smallest genuinely inorganic ring? Here it is: Cyclodiborazane (BH ₂ NH ₂ ) ₂. It really does exist, the isosteric cousin of cyclobutadiene, as a mimosa-like solid: JACS 88 (1966) 4396.
Karl Wilhelm Böddeker, Hamburg

My favorite molecule is tetrodotoxin (TTX), the deadly poison (= neurotoxin) of the Chinese / Japanese puffer fish "Fugu". Only selected chefs with a special license and years of experience are allowed to prepare and offer this fish in special restaurants. I have had the privilege of being invited to a fugu meal (a ritual) once in China and twice in Japan. TTX is an alkaloid from the imidazoline and pyrimidine groups. It blocks tension-charged sodium channels, which leads to muscle paralysis. It's one of the most powerful poisons ever - the lethal dose is 10 micrograms per kilogram of body weight.
Hans Joachim Gross, Würzburg

Almost fifty years of intensive research on Amanitin creates an emotional bond with this molecule. The poison of the green leaf mushroom still claims the deaths of mushroom pickers every year - despite the antidote silibin available today. Due to the strong and specific inhibition of the transcription enzyme RNA polymerase II, Amanitin has also become a valued tool in molecular biology. And in Medicine could Amanitin covalently bound to tumor-specific antibodies, acquire in the near future as an anticancer agent meaning.

Heinz Faulstich, Heidelberg

I did my FH diploma thesis in 1981 at the University of Tübingen in the department of Organic Chemistry. A doctoral student in this working group is engaged in NMR studies on various methylated and phenylated adamantane derivatives. That was when I first heard of adamantane. I was impressed that he said in Swabian that the adamantane structure was like small "spheres" and that it was therefore very volatile. He must never forget to close the pointed flasks, otherwise the painstakingly synthesized compound would be gone. Even today I particularly like this "spherical" molecular structure of adamantane.
Andreas Weber, Wiesbaden

As a polymer chemist, I am fascinated by simple units with multiple effects. Graphs offer a simple basis like with LEGO bricks. It is stable and still modifiable. There are numerous applications and areas of research. Graph is exciting. A giant molecule? A single crystal? Or both ?

Heinz Herzog, Herzogenrath

Glucose is a versatile, proven example of general aspects such as constitutional isomerism, enantiomerism, diastereomerism and reactivity of functional groups in the classroom. Some chemists do not like carbohydrates, including their flagship, because the structure and how to determine them are considered complicated.

Glucose is my preferred molecule because the question "How do I tell my student?" Can now be answered fairly easily using appropriate X-ray structure determinations, e.g. using ß-D-glucose, in which all 5 substituents are in the equatorial positions Here, too, my favorite molecule is an example of something more general, namely of various advances in the study of crystals.

Albrecht Mannschreck, Regensburg

1,7-substituted anthracenes have fascinated mankind since the dawn of science and have brought about numerous everyday blessings as a by-product of their research. At least they are visually extremely appealing, be it as a material with terrific luminosity, especially under UV light, and also as a structural formula on paper. They are unsurpassed as structuring agents and spacers, unfortunately many shy away from the sensitivity of the anthracene unit and switch to benzophenone units, for example (not bad either, but nothing beats the original).
Ralf Hauck, Basel, Switzerland

"Gossyplure", first described in Science in 1973, is a sex pheromone of the cotton moth Pectinophora gossypiella Saunders (Lep: Gelechiidae), a mixture of two isomer pairs, of (Z, Z) - and (Z, E) -7,11-hexadecadienyl acetate.

In July 1973 it was the most valuable natural substance that could be imagined in the fight against the cotton moth that was introduced to California and is an original example of non-toxic plant protection using the mating disorder method. The immediate assignment in the IPM in Californian cotton fields under swarms of mosquitoes was a sweaty, but worthwhile assignment.

Non-destructive spectroscopic investigations by IR, UV and NMR, as well as the controlled ozone depletion, which provided three fragments that could be characterized by gas chromatography, were sufficient to elucidate the structure of 0.3 mg, which had been painstakingly isolated. The EI-MS and the GC retention times confirmed the structure. The structural proof was carried out by means of total synthesis.
Hans E. Hummel, Giessen

Very nice symmetrical, just look, that's my dear melamine.

When it is combined with aldehyde, a resin of the highest quality is created.

Resistant to heat and fire and ultimately not even that expensive.

A foam can be made out of it and many other things.

Heinz Weber, Grünstadt

As can be seen, CO _{2 is} an extremely elegant molecule: its straightness (linearity), its robustness (stability) and its serenity (inertia) are captivating. CO ₂ is therefore an omnipresent component of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the lithosphere. In the biosphere, CO _{2 is an} essential part of the global carbon cycle and therefore a basis of life on our planet. The extensive use of fossil carbon sources for energy generation by humans has brought CO ₂ into disrepute as a climate killer through no fault of their own; it requires the rescue of honor through chemistry.

We are working on it: the use of CO ₂ as an alternative carbon source is the subject of growing international research, industrial use is moving into the realm of what is possible and sensible.

Peter Orth, Cologne

Bullvalen is my favorite molecule because at low temperature it has differently bonded hydrogen atoms, but at higher temperatures they are all in the same bond state.

Kurt Wendel, Ludwigshafen

RNA is an incredibly versatile and fascinating molecule. Presumably, RNA is the first biomolecule to emerge and therefore the basis of all life. Nowadays, in addition to the catalytic functions, the medical potential of this substance, which has been neglected for a long time, is being researched at high pressure. Contrary to the prevailing doctrine to date, it turned out that the RNA itself is very stable and can be used medically as a messenger substance for building instructions for proteins. Cancer therapies, prophylactic vaccines and molecular therapies are currently being researched and developed. RNA thus achieves the incredible balancing act from the origin of all life to the most modern drug development.

Dr. Wolfgang Große, Tübingen

"Eventually the whole thing dissolves into systems of formulas that are somehow related to one another, and there are only a few dozen people in the wide world who think the same thing about something as simple as water; everyone else talks about it in languages that are at home somewhere between today and a few thousand years ago. So it must be said that if a person just thinks a little, he ends up in a very messy company, so to speak! "

(Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities, Book One, Part Two, Chapter 28)
Ulrich Sattler, Berlin

My favorite molecule is methylhydrazine carbodithioate. It is the starting molecule for my master?s thesis with a very interesting and diverse chemistry. Only my laboratory partners do not like the synthesis of the molecule, after all it stinks a lot.

Alexander Haseloer, Cologne

My favorite molecule: Houttuynoid B. I was able to fully synthesize this molecule for the first time in 2015 after years of research. I put a lot of time, both physical and intellectual, but just as much frustration into the total synthesis of this molecule - so it has had a more than lasting impact on my life.

Thomas Kerl, Cologne

This triazolopyrimidine derivative is easily accessible from aminotriazole and acetoacetic ester, but is probably little known. In 1935 Emil Joachim Birr (in the first year of his work at the Wolfen film factory!) Discovered the excellent stabilizing effect of the substance on photographic silver halide emulsions and gave it the above code name. It remained a secret and a monopoly of Agfa until 1945. After that, it was included in almost every photo material worldwide. With the end of silver halide photography, the consolation remains that it now also plays a role in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals.

Gunther Fischer, Leipzig