Lec 29 MIT 5.111 Principles of Chemical Science,...

The Shapes of Molecules: VSEPR Theory (Prof. Catherine Drennan) Catherine Drennan understands why some Massachusetts Institute of Technology students may sign up for her freshman chemistry class grudgingly and only because it is required. After all, when she began her undergraduate studies at Vassar College, she thought that chemistry had no relevance to her two intended majors, drama and biopsychology. I wasn’t even sure what biopsychology was, but it sounded good, said Drennan, now associate professor of chemistry. When they insisted I had to take chemistry, I thought it was so unfair. But she took the required course and fell in love—hard—with the beauty of chemistry. She grew fascinated with the molecular details underlying biological systems and wound up majoring in chemistry. I'll admit that the basic principles are not that exciting in and of themselves, she said, but chemistry is at the heart of biology. After college, Drennan spent two years teaching high school science and drama at a Quaker boarding school in the Midwest that doubled as a working hog farm. But she realized her passion to know how things work could only be satisfied by a research career. Now Drennan's studies drill down to the structural basis of how molecules work, as exemplified in one of her recent research articles that answers a mystifying question about how nature tailors a complex antifungal agent. Dislike or fear of chemistry, especially by biology students, is a major problem that will have an impact on the future of biological science, she said, citing a recent National Academy of Sciences report that too many biologists are successfully avoiding chemistry in their training. How can we understand the complexity of macromolecular machines, for example, without employing physical chemistry? she said. I always thought that biology was more interesting than chemistry, but even in biology, students have to have a chemistry background to make real contributions....