As educators we must constantly make decisions about how one introduces students to both the principles of chemistry and the complexity of real chemical systems. The featured molecules this month come from the paper by Jeffrey Seeman detailing some of the complexities involved in the volatilization of two alkaloids, nicotine and cocaine. Students could be asked to identify how chemistry is involved in the various “steps” described in the paper, and most beginning students will be surprised to learn just how complex a process the volatilization of a molecule such as nicotine is.

In addition to static images, two fully manipulable versions (Jmol, MDLChime) of these molecules appear below. (The Jmol versions may take a few extra seconds to load, based on the speed of your Internet connection.)