I used drawing ALL the time when I was learning about synthetic organic chemistry, and drawings and sketches are invaluable when discussing ideas about atoms and molecules with everyone from students to professors to interested friends. Words cannot describe a shape nearly as well as an image - and that's all synthetic chemists are really trying to do; make a molecule that is the desired 3D shape and with the right kinds of atoms in the right parts. Mirror image is very important to medicinal chemists since molecules must be the right mirror image to fit snugly with the 'handed' enzymes and other molecules in our body. Images and drawings are not only important for organic chemists; metals and crystals and any other collection of atoms you can imagine all have shape/structure and chemists often try and represent their ideas on paper. Not to mention drawings of equipment scribbled in lab books across the globe. I feel like drawing a molecule right now. Emma. --------------------------------------------- Emma Welsh PhD Cochrane Systematic Reviewer Cochrane Airways Group Division of Community Health Sciences 6th Floor Hunter Wing St George's University of London London UK, SW17 0RE +44 (0)20 8725 2792 ********************************************************************** 1. To suspend yourself from the list, whilst on leave, for example, send an email to mailto:[log in to unmask] with the following message: set psci-com nomail -- [include hyphens] 2. To resume email from the list, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message: set psci-com mail -- [include hyphens] 3. To leave psci-com, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message: leave psci-com -- [include hyphens] 4. Further information about the psci-com discussion list, including list archive, can be found at the list web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psci-com.html 5. The psci-com gateway to internet resources on science communication and science and society can be found at http://psci-com.ac.uk 6. To contact the Psci-com list owner, please send an email to mailto:[log in to unmask] **********************************************************************