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Molecules That Matter
Opens 18 August 2008
Hach Gallery at the Chemical Heritage Foundation

Organized in partnership with The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Molecules That Matter showcases ten organic molecules that profoundly altered our world in the twentieth century: aspirin, isooctane, penicillin, polyethylene, nylon, DNA, progestin, DDT, Prozac, and buckminsterfullerene. Each molecule is associated with one decade of the twentieth century. A board of ten chemists from higher education, industry, and CHF selected the molecules, with a final review by two chemistry Nobel laureates.

Molecules That Matter aims to stimulate our awareness of the impact molecular science has on us all, individually and as a society. All around the exhibition, models of the molecules’ chemical structures—2.5 billion times larger, but scientifically accurate—float suspended from walls and ceilings. Each molecule is surrounded with an evocative array of related cultural artifacts and artworks.

View the exhibit
Molecules That Matter will open at CHF on 18 August 2008, and will then travel to the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio; Baylor University in Waco, Texas; and Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.

Attend the Molecules That Matter lecture series at CHF
This fall CHF is hosting a series of five lectures by a range of speakers:

• 25 September: "Biomaterials and How They Will Change Our Lives", by Robert Langer, noted chemical engineer from MIT and creator of the biopolymers industry
  
• 7 October: "The Beauty of Science and the Science of Beauty", by Eric Roston, author and senior associate in the Washington, D.C., office of The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University
• 21 October: "An Artist Appropriates Science", by artist Chrissy Conant
  
• 11 November: "The Many Faces of DDT", by Sandra Steingraber, an internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer and reproductive health, "internationally recognized expert on the environmental links to cancer and reproductive health
  
• 9 December: "Linking Proteins, Wires, Dots, and Molecules into Useful Devices", by Dawn Bonnell, Trustee Professor of Material Sciences at University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center

Following the lecture, guests will have the opportunity to tour the museum at CHF.

Additional information

• View the exhibition page on the Tang Web site
• View the special Web presentation on the Tang Web site

The show may be open for additional venues in 2010. Please contact John Weber, Dayton Director, Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum, after 15 January 2008 if you are interested.