"One day I discovered that one could get the barrier to internal rotation in ethane approximately right using this method. This was the beginning of my work on organic molecules"
About this Quote
A Nobel-winning chemist frames his origin story not as a lightning bolt of genius, but as a small, technical victory: getting ethane's internal rotation barrier "approximately right". The modesty is doing real work here. Hoffmann is signaling a scientist's true seduction point: not sweeping answers, but the moment a model finally touches reality closely enough that you feel the world become legible.
The phrase "approximately right" is a quiet manifesto. In chemistry, approximation isn't a concession; it's the currency of progress. Ethane's rotational barrier is famously subtle - a few kilocalories per mole, easy to hand-wave, hard to predict for the right reasons. Saying he could reproduce it "using this method" implies a new computational or theoretical tool with traction. The method matters because it suggests portability: if it can capture this delicate balance of hyperconjugation and steric effects in the simplest alkane, it might scale to messier, more interesting organic molecules. That's the subtext of ambition, tucked inside restraint.
There's also an implicit rebuke of the heroic narrative of scientific discovery. Hoffmann presents a career pivot as a pragmatic response to evidence: the method worked, so he followed it. The "beginning of my work" reads less like destiny than like a door opening because a calculation clicked. It's a reminder that whole research programs often grow out of one problem that yields - not perfectly, just convincingly enough to make curiosity feel inevitable.
The phrase "approximately right" is a quiet manifesto. In chemistry, approximation isn't a concession; it's the currency of progress. Ethane's rotational barrier is famously subtle - a few kilocalories per mole, easy to hand-wave, hard to predict for the right reasons. Saying he could reproduce it "using this method" implies a new computational or theoretical tool with traction. The method matters because it suggests portability: if it can capture this delicate balance of hyperconjugation and steric effects in the simplest alkane, it might scale to messier, more interesting organic molecules. That's the subtext of ambition, tucked inside restraint.
There's also an implicit rebuke of the heroic narrative of scientific discovery. Hoffmann presents a career pivot as a pragmatic response to evidence: the method worked, so he followed it. The "beginning of my work" reads less like destiny than like a door opening because a calculation clicked. It's a reminder that whole research programs often grow out of one problem that yields - not perfectly, just convincingly enough to make curiosity feel inevitable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Science |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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