Molecular Taxonomy

Chemists and physicists have accumulated vast libraries of data about the properties and atoms and molecules via the simplest to the most complex experiments; from Bohr to Schrödinger theory; and using back-of-the-envelope to supercomputer computation. Much of it is distilled into the periodic chart of the elements and models about the various molecular bonds. Though starting more recently, scientists have garnered as many or more numbers describing characteristics of nuclei, the essence of which is seen in the chart of the isotopes. Still more recently, the simplest fundamental particle properties have been epitomized in the geometric patterns showing hadrons and their quark constituents. And now even string theory has produced a periodic system. This book seeks to show that there is some harmony in these various charts and systems, or at least in our understanding of them. In doing so it considers molecules to be not only chemical molecules that are made up of atoms, but also nuclei and fundamental particles that consist of lesser particles bonded together. It seeks to show the beauty of the sort of design which emerges upon attempting the taxonomy of “molecules.”