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8.3
The historic understandings of molecules and the mysteries surrounding them
 
  No other level of matter appears so complex or mysterious as that of molecules. A molecule is by definition a group of two or more atomic structures bonded together in some kind of three dimensional structure. The air we breath are molecules. The water we wash in is molecules. Our bodies and everything we eat and use is made up of complex arrangements of molecules.  
  Since science was able to deduce that living and non-living complex structures such as skin, teeth, hair, blood, cells, plastics are all made up of complex molecules, literally millions of different molecular structures have been identified, from very simple combinations of elements such as Hydrogen and Oxygen (e.g. Water H2O), through to protein molecules which form the basis of organic cellular structure in living animals.  
  From the beginning of this century, many attempts have been made to properly categorize molecular structures into "family" groupings and techniques have been standardized in chemistry to describe chemical reactions ( two structures coming together to form new structures).  
  As knowledge has been built up from previous knowledge, we now have hundreds of thousands of pages of models we can now call Molecular Science, Chemistry and the Biological Sciences.  
  Yet contemporary science is now faced with several major problems regarding our overall models of molecules:  
1. Most of the formulas and training in understanding molecular reactions is based on two dimensional diagrams and formulas describing a three dimensional world.  
  For example, simple sugar molecules can be written 6 Carbon, 6 Oxygen and 12 Hydrogen atoms. But it is their 3 dimensional arrangement that determines their characteristics and behaviour. Our two dimensional system continues to provide the wrong picture as to exactly what is happening in the molecular world.  
2. Our groupings of many atomic structures into families has been based on the groups of atoms, not their shape and underlying similarities.  
  As science has never fully considered that atomic structures above Hydrogen and Helium can be made of combinations of the two, we see large gaps in understanding the similarities between different molecules such as Carbon Dioxide (1 Carbon and 2 Oxygen) and say Ozone (3 Oxygen). Contemporary science is unable to grasp that they are all part of the Carbon family.  
  We saw function and multiple purpose due to structure using the same base as sub-atomics, yet more sophisticated, hence the importance of Steph.  
3. Finally, we see the general loss in "wonder" associated with the way molecules form more complex shapes that ultimately lead to cellular life and to such structures as the human being.  
  Since science was able to deduce that human beings are largely made up of nothing more than billions of atoms of a few basic elements, science, has lost much of its understanding of molecular structures being self-aware living things. In destroying the myth of molecules that make up life holding some secret or unique essence we have lost our ability to rationally explain how molecules can and do exhibit the necessary "intelligence" required of a complex organism.  
     
     
     
     
     
     
 
 

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