Retrosynthesis

We were at the usual coffee place when Vanny chose, so astutely, to mention McCready's past sexual misdeeds. It was a quick, subtle reference- 'in the toilet'- and the tone of the conversation changed completely. Without a complexion alteration, her tone snapped darker- 'let's not start. The things I could say about who people have got with here.'

She had a damn point. The study group had formed through an series of total misadventures and coincidence, and to articulate every shred of horrific incestuous drama along the way would surely be to rip us to shreds. We were the tightest knit friends in some ways, and hanging by total threads in another.

The study group had originally been me and the girls from that first Biology prac. Later, friends and acquaintances- Sarah, Dane, Maggie, Gina, Mokachino, Samuel, Kieran- all had joined onto, meshing in, webbing together. Hell, I hadn't know Dane half a year ago, and now I rent with him. Adele and I had only met a few times before that first biol prac, and now she too rents a room over. We were the quintessential study group, and now as we reclined at Wordies, waiting for that second round of coffees to steer head long into the brief social impasse, my mind ticked over to Retrosynthesis.

I study a BSc, and all morning in my Chem lecture it had been "Retrosynthesis". Retro, backwards. Synthesis, to make. I guess it could be approached two ways. You start with something and then tear it down, breaking the bonds of your original molecule as you go. It's a good way to look at complex molecules, complex chemical scenarios and see where they came from. In another sense though- as you go backwards, you aren't so much tearing down, but making new compounds. These are the rawer, the simpler compounds from which your advanced one formed. Often with chemical retrosynthesis, as you look at a complex structure and then break it apart, you end up with an entirely different starting product than you perceived. Benzocaine, for example might best be synthesised with Toluene to start, rather than Benzene. And yet the structure of Benzocaine (an anaesthetic, by the way) screams for you start simply with benzene. The point is that the end, though complicated, can come from equally deceiving beginnings.

As with most of our fights, it quickly dispersed. Jokes resumed, Anyway, most of the people there had other thoughts on their mind- GAMSAT was a few weeks away, and everyone was partially shitting themselves. Sarah C and I made plans for our drinking tomorrow night. We all had lectures at 2, so we departed out separate ways, almost in two by twos, except for myself. Wordies is right on a bookstore, and so I lingered, not buying anything in particular, apart from a new Chemistry lab book.

I begin to think about Retrosynthesis in terms of people, of groups of friends, of networks of "I know them"s. Breaking back, once at a time, through a series of calculated disconnections, the social bonds of our group made me wonder what were the simple things that we were together. Drinking buddies? No, far more than that. The study group was a kind of rock to me- a surprise as well, for reasons worth explaining later- them more of a Toluene vibe, a pleasant surprise, than the obvious expected outcome of a benzene.

This blog is a place where each day, I will come and say something about Chemistry. I am studying Microbiology/Chemistry as my two majors, and I would not pick myself as the stereotypical Chem guy. I reject jeans and joggers. I drink too much. As somewhat, in some ways, of a Chem outsider for a 3rd year Chem student, I will document, observe, and share tidbits. Really, to explain my motives I guess I'd have to go back to the start. But that retrosynthesis is for another time.