

Organic chemists, the scientists that build and study chemicals made mostly of carbon, often represent the molecules of their affection as angular black and white sketches. To the untrained eye, those drawings sometimes look like frighteningly complicated stick figures.

Last month, over at the Carbon Based Curiosities blog, Excimer and Psi*Psi held a contest to poke fun at those images – particularly ones that look like people.

The most amazing part: Stephanie Chanteau and James Tour, scientists at Rice University, have made molecules that really do look like human stick figures. In 2003, they described those chemicals in the Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Several of the contest entries contain little chemistry in jokes. I will do my best to explain them. A couple of the submissions were too offensive to show here, so if that sort of humor appeals to you, feel free to check them out on the Carbon Based Curiosities blog.

Grignard reagents are highly reactive chemicals made from magnesium and halogens like bromine. They are a staple of organic chemistry.

The arms of this figure are made from cholesterol derivatives. Flaxseed oil lowers cholesterol.

The Winner!