What are organic molecules and what makes them special?
Carbon's Magic Shapes
What are organic molecules and what makes them special?
Somewhere out there, right now, a strawberry is being a strawberry, a frog is being a frog, and you are being you. Three wildly different things — and yet they're all built from the same secret ingredient. The chemists call it "organic molecules." Don't let the fancy name scare you. By the end of this book, you'll see them everywhere.
First, a molecule. A molecule is just a tiny clump of atoms stuck together — think of atoms as LEGO bricks, and a molecule as the little thing you build by clicking a few together. Water is a molecule. Sugar is a molecule. Everything around you is made of these tiny clumps, far too small to see.
