Atomic You

When I teach kinetics in G-Chem, we always open with a short discussion of Molecular Me, or what your experience might be if you were the size of an atom or small molecule. This semester I took things one step further by asking students to write a short creative piece as their response to the weekly prompt, playfully titled Atomic You. I’ve warned my students about the dangers of anthropomorphizing in chemistry, but it can be helpful in getting students to think about the molecular level.

 

Since I also participate in the prompts (usually to write a quick thought or an encouraging response to a student who wrote something interesting), I decided to type in my own entry:

 

I am K+, a potassium ion hanging out in a neuron. My life is a roller-coaster. When there’s nothing much going on, I lazily move around randomly going with the flow while surrounded by my posse – water molecules who love hanging out with me. Every now and then, one water molecule leaves but another quickly takes their place. But then something called an action potential travels down the neuron and things get crazy. I suddenly feel impelled to charge at a tunnel in the wall. I lose my water friends and swoosh through the tunnel. And when things calm down again I float back to my original resting place. Whew! It would be nice to know when this happens so I don't get such a jolt every time.

 

The most common imagined situation was being a water molecule, sometimes in a soda or coffee, but two that I’ve highlighted below imagined being in water, the substance.

 

Hi! I am an atom inside a glass of water. Last night I was poured into a glass with some of my friends who were all stuck together in an ice cube, but overnight they separated and joined the rest of us in the glass who were all moving freely. All I really do all day is just float around and bounce off my other atom friends. Sometimes when some new friends are added in an ice cube we all get a little bit more stiff, but I can still float around. Sometimes when we are left in front of the window we get a little bit hot! When that happens we loosen up even more and I bounce off of my friends way quicker than usual.

 

I am an atom inside the pitcher of water in the fridge. I am excited because today I think I will finally get poured into a glass. My atom friends and I have been waiting for this day for almost a week, the people in this household do not drink a lot of water. All I hope is that we don't get separated and the atom friends that got frozen and turned into ice might even join us! It is fairly cold in the fridge so we are moving pretty slow so it will be exciting when we get poured so we can move a little faster as we warm in room temperature. I am hopeful that we won't get boiled and move into the air, it is dangerous out there once we become a gas since we start moving so fast. We all tend to get separated and take on different roles in our atom lives.

 

Sometimes the students picked interesting cases based on what they’ve learned. This one discusses selective precipitation, but also reveals that the student thinks ion-pairs often stick together in solution, even for “soluble” salts. I’m not sure any of my standard assignment questions would have elicited this artifact. Something for me to ponder.

 

I am an atom of Ag in the compound AgNO3. KCl is being poured into the beaker that I am in, creating a mixture and causing a reaction to begin. I notice that my bond between me and NO3 is breaking, and so is the bond between my K and Cl counterparts. After our bonds are broken, I begin to be attracted to nearby Cl atoms. However, this time I notice something different: The AgCl bonds that are forming are beginning to bond together as well. I am now a member of a lattice, and my bonds between my counterparts are stronger than ever. I am now part of a solid. Meanwhile, the K and NO3 have bonded as well, however they are still moving around quite freely as they are still in the aqueous state. My solid is now at the bottom of the beaker, and later on future reactions may break me apart. Otherwise, I will remain a solid.

 

Here’s one with material I haven’t covered in class. We get to batteries and electrochemistry only later in the semester.

 

I am a Lithium ion that is within a lithium ion battery. When the battery is not being used, I stay in the negative terminal of the battery within the device or system. Since my outermost shell has one valence electron, I constantly want to get rid of it. When the battery is being used, the electrons that leave me flow from the negative terminal to the positive terminal through the circuits and components in the battery. Since I am giving off negative electrons, I become more positive. Since I become more positive, I move through an electrolyte to the positive end of the battery in order to neutralize the charge build up and keep the reaction going with specific gradients. Throughout using the battery, there is less buildup of myself and other lithium ions in the negative end and the battery becomes empty.

 

The one below about carbon is my favorite! Reminds me of Hazen’s book, Symphony in C.

 

I am a carbon atom hanging out about 100 miles below the surface of the Earth. A lot of my other friends down here are also carbon atoms. Our environment is very hot and there is a ton of pressure on us because of this enormous rock called Earth. Because of these conditions, I am strongly covalently bonded to 4 of my closest carbon friends. We have assigned spots, resulting in a very orderly structure. My town is quite nice because of these strong bonds between carbon atoms. We are all so close and orderly that we become a hard crystal. Woah, did you feel that? Why is the ground shaking? What is AHHHHH! One second I was chilling in the Earth's upper mantle and now I'm on the surface of the Earth! A strong volcanic eruption must have taken my friends and I all the way up here! The eruption was so quick and powerful that the entire crystallized town stayed together...phew. Time passes (I don't know how much, I am just a carbon atom) and these weird walking creatures described my town as being a "radiant, rare diamond". I am very flattered :). They carefully pick my crystallized town up and gently dust us all off. I heard them discussing how we are going to be transformed into beautiful jewelery! Better yet, I can always be right near my other carbon friends, as one carat of our crystal diamond represents our entire town composed of billions of carbon atoms. 

 

And this final one, while not quite atomic-sized since the perspective is perhaps more macromolecular, is hilarious anyway. Life as a baseball.

 

I am an atom on the surface of a baseball. Only a few short weeks ago, my life consisted of travelling stretches of grass, easily the most boring thing of all time. And the smell! Horrendous! Thankfully, I made out of that life and into the life of surrounding cork and yarn. I certainly was handled pretty rough, but after the excruciatingly long time of doing nothing, I don't mind. I now reside in some sort of trap, made of the same components as me, but smelling so much better than the cows we came from. It's dark in here and the noises outside are loud, but I am finally in contact with something else. It seems to be a humans fingers! They're kind of sweaty...I wonder if he's nervous? The fingers begin to spin me in the trap...I think I heard them call it a glove? The fingers settle in on a position and suddenly I am out in the sun. Wait, now I'm not touching anything! But this rush of wind is so amazing, exhilerating, wonderful! CRACK! OWWWWW!!! What'd you do that for? That really hurt! Whoaaaa the view from up here is crazy! A sea of grass, a sea of people, and then a sea of...black? I came to a stop in some sort of painted box. I see a bunch of cars around me but man is it hot! Guess I'm going to get my suntan today!

 

I suspect that the allusion to cows being smelly is my fault since I don’t know if many of my students have actually smelled cows. I have fair experience growing up at the edge of town next to a rubber plantation where cows regularly trekked around and our street would occasionally be plastered with cow poop. I didn’t tell the students this. But I did use methane being belched from cows as a memorable illustrative example of what I dubbed the mystery of the Unexploded Cow. Students who wanted to know more were directed to the origins of dragonflame.