In pages of sci-fi iconic,
Find parody central-carbonic
And humor cerebral,
As shape tetrahedral
Prompts molecule deemed endochronic.
I have written before here about the welcome surprise of renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov’s essays, contextualizing many interesting scientific history moments and concepts for general audiences and published in popular magazines. This is a non-NaPoWriMo poem based on one such piece, in which Asimov satirized scientific writing with a journal article about an imaginary molecule deemed thiotimoline.
“In pages of sci-fi iconic, /
Find parody central-carbonic /
And humor cerebral…”
Asimov first celebrated thiotimoline in an extensive parody borrowing the structure of a journal article: “The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline.” I found a reprint in the essay collection Only a Trillion earlier this autumn.
Thiotimoline is an organic molecule (“central-carbonic”) exhibiting unusual properties: namely, the ability to time-travel. It was apparently inspired by Asimov’s work with the highly-water-soluble compound catechol in graduate school. (Catechol dissolves extremely quickly in water due to its polar structure; this behavior spurred the imaginative possibility of something dissolving before even reaching the water.)
“As shape tetrahedral /
Prompts molecule deemed endochronic.”
A challenge of organic chemistry is representing three-dimensional molecules via two-dimensional media. The convention we use today is called “dash-wedge” notation. In a carbon atom’s tetrahedral geometry, two bonds are drawn in the plane of the page. A solid triangle (a wedge) is read as a bond coming out of the page towards the viewer; a dashed triangle is read as a bond going back behind the page, away from the viewer. Asimov cites a slightly different drawing convention, but the same theme: a three-dimensional “shape tetrahedral” is a key idea for chemists to communicate via a two-dimensional page.
Asimov’s essay proposes that instead of a molecule’s existing in three dimensions, it instead exists in four: it can time-travel! Applying the three-dimensional drawing convention to the fourth dimension means the molecule exists in the past and future, along with the present: it is both behind and ahead of the viewer, in the fourth dimension of time. Asimov characterizes thiotimoline as “endochronic” (a reasonable descriptor for “traveling into time,” given other chemistry terms).
***
I also enjoyed reading about Asimov’s writing process with this essay. He was already an established sci-fi writer while in graduate school. As he neared the dissertation process, he recognized that popular writing and academic writing employ quite different styles, and this piece was the result of his shifting back towards the strict writing style of a scientific article.
I hope to revisit the saga of thiotimoline in the future (which seems appropriate). This essay has great potential for teaching, as a way to contextualize audience awareness, writing conventions, and the challenges of disciplinary specializations. The last of these is even more pronounced now than during the late 1940s, when the piece was written.
It likewise might be fascinating to consider the “experimental evidence” that Asimov wrote about as a reflection of that point in chemistry’s disciplinary history: he primarily satirized the writing around preparing and purifying an experimental target and exploring its physical properties, such as solubility. I wonder if he ever would have been interested in adding in fictional instrumental analyses in a follow-up, knowing how prominent such techniques would become in the next few decades. Asimov comments generally on the immense number of functional groups on thiotimoline; it’s fun to imagine how such a structure could be supported via different types of spectroscopy.
However, I am glad to at least get a few lines about this written in the present moment. Moreover, while I’m surprised I haven’t used this post title before, it’s a fitting one for today.
Chemphasis 