Imagine this. It's winter 1862 and you're a chemistry professor教授 in Belgium. You're working on one of the most pressing problems in chemistry, the structure of benzene. Benzene is a smelly and highly高度地 flammable hydrocarbon[有化] 碳氢化合物 molecule[化学] 分子. All hydrocarbons[有化] 碳氢化合物 are made of, you guessed it, hydrogen[化学] 氢 and carbon碳. But in benzene, the ratio比率 of these elements is a little weird怪异的. Instead of having more hydrogen[化学] 氢 atoms than carbon碳 atoms like most hydrocarbons[有化] 碳氢化合物, benzene has the same number of hydrogen[化学] 氢 and carbon碳 atoms, 6 and 6.
What strange molecular分子的 structure could let these atoms fit适合 together? Frustrated, you turn your chair towards the warm fire and take a nap. As you sleep, visions of atoms and molecules[化学] 分子 dance in your mind's eye. They turn into a series系列 of snakes. Then suddenly, one of the snake's coils around and bites its tail like the ancient symbol of the Urroboros. You've solved the chemical structure of benzene in a dream. Precisely正好 as German chemist Auguste Kekule did in 1862, completely十分 changing the future of organic[有化] 有机的 chemistry in the process过程.
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