2009 backdrop to the Human Chemistry 101 channel, showing that for two people to react they must "collide" in such a way that their movements surmount the activation energy barrier after which a decrease in Gibbs free energy (ordinate) over time (abcissa) signifies favored human chemical reaction, into which the stable product, the dihumanide molecule, forms, connect via a human chemical bond: A≡B. |
“Human chemistry, the study of how people ‘chemically’ react to one another, is an important branch of the science of human nature.”
“Social chemistry—the study of the mutual attraction [and repulsion] of equivalent human molecules—is a science yet to be created.”
A + B → AB (bond formation)
AB → A + B (bond dissolution)
A synthesis, i.e. evolution, view of the formation of a person, i.e. human molecule, by Canadian designer Shawn LaPaix, from hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc., element precursors, over the last 13.7 billion years. |
First human chemist | ||
“People who love each other mix like water and wine; people who hate each other segregate like water and oil.” | ||
Greek philosopher Empedocles (495-435 BC), the first human chemist, famous for his noted chemistry aphorisms of how people mix or sort. |
See main: History of human chemistry, HC pioneersThe first proto human chemist was Greek philosopher Empedocles, notable for his circa 450BC theory that people related tend to mix like water and wine; whereas enemies mix or rather separate like oil and water.
The 2007 "combination lock theory" of dating by Canadian relationship philosopher Chanel Wood is a recent human chemistry theory, modeled on NaCl formation, according to which the "we just clicked" catch phrase of successful relationships is conceptualized as two people, as "reactants", clicking together in a manner to the way atoms combine to satisfy valence electron shell configurations. |
“Potassium is a compound of certain elements which exist abundantly in nature: the operations of nature can resolve potassium, or gold, or man, into their elements, and build up new gold, new potassium, and new men, by laws unknown indeed to human chemistry, but which we must (arrogantly or not) for the present hesitate to pronounce undiscoverable.”
Human chemistry educational videos | |
Screenshot (2010) of the the YouTube Human Chemistry 101 channel, which sporadically makes educational videos on human chemistry topics. |
See main: Human molecule, Human molecular formulaAn important subject in human chemistry, is the definition of the the human being from an atomic point of view. Many terms have been employed over the years to define humans chemically, including: chemical entity (Johann Goethe, 1809), point atom (Humphry Davy, 1813) human molecule (Hippolyte Taine, 1869), social molecule (Thomas Huxley, 1871), economic molecule (Leon Walras, c. 1870s), human atom and human molecule (Ferninand Schiller, 1891), human molecule (Emile Boutmy, 1904), human molecule (Henry Adams, 1910), human chemical and human chemical element (William Fairburn, 1914), chemical formula in operation (George Carey, 1919), human molecule (Vilfredo Pareto, 1916), human molecule (Pierre Teilhard, 1947), social atom, acquaintanceship atom, collective atom, individual atom, psychological atom (Jacob Moreno, 1951), human molecule (C.G. Darwin, 1952), human atom (Erich Fromm, 1956), dissipative structure (Ilya Prigogine, 1971), human atomism (Arthur Iberall, 1987), social atom (Mark Buchanan, 2007), and many more. [4] The first calculation of the molecular formula for a human being was published in 2002 by American limnologists Robert Sterner and James Elser as shown (adjacent). [19]
Chemical formula for one human |
Above: the 2000-calculated human "empirical formula" (see: Sterner-Elser human molecular formula), showing the lowest common ratio of atoms in the molecule, as contrasted with a "molecular formula", which shows all of the atoms in the molecule. More recent 2002 calculations by Libb Thims, however, indicates that 26 not 22 elements are active in a human (see: Thims human molecular formula). |
A 2002 "human chemistry" interpretation of Goethe's theory of elective affinities. [32] |
See also: Goethe's human chemistry; Goethe's human affinity tableThe science of human chemistry was founded with the 1809 publication of the semi-biographical scientific novella Elective Affinities by German polymath Johann Goethe (IQ=230), who viewed human relationships as chemical reactions between chemical species, being predetermined by chemical affinity force relations as were found in standard 18th century chemical affinity tables. [2]
“Are men and women subject to the same laws of material reality as are the chemical substances?”
Symbol Person Verbal assignment A Charlotte ‘Provided it does not seem pedantic,’ the Captain said, ‘I think I can briefly sum up in the language of signs. Imagine an A intimately united with a B, so that no force is able to sunder them; imagine a C likewise related to a D; now bring the two couples into contact: A will throw itself at D, C at B, without our being able to say which first deserted its partner, which first embraced the other’s partner.’
‘Now then!’ Eduard interposed: ‘until we see all this with our own eyes, let us look on this formula as a metaphor from which we may extract a lesson we can apply immediately to ourselves. You, Charlotte, represent the A, and I represent your B; for in fact I do depend altogether on you and follow you as A follows B. The C is quite obviously the Captain, who for the moment is to some extent drawing me away from you. Now it is only fair that, if you are not to vanish into the limitless air, you must be provided with a D, and this D is unquestionably the charming little lady Ottilie, whose approaching presence you may no longer resist.’B Eduard C Captain D Ottilie
What Goethe did, ingeniously, was to arrive at the view that humans are evolved chemicals that react together according to the same laws that govern smaller chemical entities and, based on this view, used Cullen's 1757 dart-arrow reaction diagram method, as found Bergman's reaction diagrams (1775), to explain human relationships as being larger versions of chemical reactions, governed by the principles of affinity chemistry, as captured in the logic of Bergman's affinity table (a 59-column 50-row affinity table), and in doing so wrote out a 36-chapter novella, based on this logic, in which each chapter is a different description of a human chemical reaction, a task which brings validity-closure to Goethe's long-standing title as being the greatest genius of all time. |
“The moral symbols used in the natural sciences are the elective affinities discovered and employed by the great Bergman.”
See main: Goethe's human affinity tableIt has been argued that German polymath Johann Goethe made a human affinity table, at least in his mind if not on paper, in circa 1808 during the writing of his 1809 novella Elective Affinities, as he readily admitted that the book was based on Bergman's affinity table (59-column 50-row affinity table) and Bergman's reaction diagrams, as made and described by Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman in his 1775 chemistry textbook A Dissertation on Elective Attractions. This will never be confirmed, however, in that in opposition to his usually practice, Goethe destroyed all of his notes and drafts to this particular novel.
A depiction of the method in which in the 1809 physical chemistry based novel Elective Affinities was written, namely in 1799 Goethe began to discuss, with Friedrich Schiller (see: Goethe timeline), how people attract, repel, and neutralize each other akin to chemicals, in terms of affinity chemistry, and sometime thereafter mentally formulated a human affinity table (left), based on Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman's 1775 affinity table. The image shown (right) is the 1996 film adaptation of the novella, depicting the basic double elective affinity reaction threading the chapters of the book together (see: history). [13] |
EduCha + Cap → EduCap + Cha
Left: a 2007 photo of a cart full of Human Chemistry textbooks, which American chemical engineer Libb Thims uses in his human chemistry lectures, at various universities, at public places such as the Magnificent Mile, Chicago. Right: A 2011 "human chemistry" symposium section, by Russian-born Israeli chemical engineer Alec Groysman, citing the views of American electrochemical engineer Libb Thims (2007) and German polymath Johann Goethe (1809), presented at the Generative Art Conference talk entitled "Use of Art Media in Engineering and Scientific Education", arguing that the nascent subject of human chemistry should be taught as part of the standard engineering curriculum, the chemical engineering curriculum in particular (see: human thermodynamics education). [34] |
In other words, the ability of humans to react and thus to bind together is based a combination of competing affinity preferences as measured by the changes in the free energies in the systems, knowing in particular that free energy coupling occurs. In more advanced human chemical thermodynamics reaction analysis, this last equation can be expanded, via German physicist Rudolf Clausius' 1865 The Mechanical Theory of Heat, into the form:
A = TΔS – PΔV – ΔTv – ΔJ
See main: Human chemical reaction (history)A larger part of the subject of human chemistry is that of applying the logic of the chemical equation, showing the reactants before the reaction arrow and the products following the reaction arrow:
Before (initial) state (reactants) → After (final) state (products)
Left: English-born American engineer William Fairburn's 1914 booklet Human Chemistry, who states that people can be defined entropically. Right: American writer Thomas Dreier's 1948 We Human Chemicals picturing people as elements on a periodic table. |
“Watch groups of people working or playing together and you will be startled to discover how ‘chemical’ are their reactions to one another. Once you acquire even rudiments of human chemistry, you will be baffled less often by people, and become impatient or angry less often at the (to you) annoying things they do. You will see and judge them for what they are—different kinds of human chemicals, obeying the laws of their natures as you and I obey the laws of our natures.”
“Human chemistry is the [study of] reactions resulting from combinations of individuals [who are] like chemical elements in a well-stocked laboratory.”
A snapshot of American chemical engineer Libb Thims’ two-volume, 824-page, 2007 Human Chemistry, the first basic textbook on the subject of people viewed as reactive chemicals. |
See main: Libb Thims (history); Human Chemistry (history); Human Chemistry (textbook origin)The world's first textbook on human chemistry is the 2007 two-volume Human Chemistry by American chemical engineer Libb Thims, written in an attempt to standardize the subject according to basic textbook chemistry on the premise that a human being is a molecule, pure and simple, made to be reactive on a surface owing heat input from the sun. The following is the opening sentence of the first chapter: [1]
“Human chemistry is the study of reactions between people.”
“I’m forced to write a book out of necessity; I’ve found that I can’t talk to anyone intelligently about any kind of thermodynamic theory of human [existence] until someone situates a basic textbook arguing that human [existence] is a chemical process involving human chemical reactions between human molecules and the bonds formed or broken therein, i.e. reactions between people, and the energetics associated with this. Most of the book is going to be based on Carnot, Clausius, Gibbs, Helmholtz, Goethe, the first person to write an actual human chemistry book (1809), Gladyshev, and about a dozen others.”
Death vs human chemistry? |
Circa 1300 BC depiction of Anubis (jackal-headed) weighing the soul (heart) against the feather of Ma’at (truth), while Thoth (ibis-headed) records the results, Horus (falcon-headed), great-grandson of Ra, guides the dead through the process, while Ammut (crocodile-lion headed) awaits to eat the soul if it is found to weight too much. |
See main: ReligionThe implications and ramifications of human chemistry, the central feature of this logic being the view that a human is not a "being", but rather a mere "molecule", that moves under the influence of a force, come into direct conflict with some of the oldest and most-cherished theories known to humankind, dating back thousands if not tens of thousands of years.
Human chemistry vs God? |
Famous 1512 depiction of the creation of Adam, by the touch of the finger God, done by Italian artist Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. |
a. Yes, how can you not believe? I think it’s a proven fact (40%)
b. I’m unsure (20%)
c. No, I believe in God (40%)
Humans alive; Hydrogen not alive, What? |
Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger's famous 1943 lecture "What is Life?", where, in his order, disorder, entropy section, he famously positioned the puzzling riddle that life is something that feeds on negative entropy. |
See main: Defunct theory of life; What is Life?, What is life? (theories of existence), What is the meaning of life?The question of what is life has long plagued human thought. The human chemistry viewpoint breaks into this question with such acidity that a mental retrograde-rewiring-detractment effect occurs. As explained by American physicist Michael Brooks, in his chapter "Life: are you more than just a bag of chemicals", from his popular 2007 book 13 Things That Don't Make Sense:
“Stop taking it for granted, and think for a moment about what sets the biological world apart from the world of nonliving matter. No scientist on earth can tell you the fundamental difference between these two states.”
See main: Unbridgeable gapThis new scientific perspective arises from the modern discernment of prolonged study of molecular evolution tables and timelines, that it is technically impossible to find a specific "spark day" (or rather spark second), in the contiguous chemical synthesis mechanism, on the evolution timeline, starting with hydrogen reactants H (13.7 billion years ago), stepping through a number of molecular species intermediates MI, and ending with modern human molecule products MH (200,000 years ago), at which it can technically be said that the chemical mechanism suddenly "came alive":
(warm pond model) |
Hydrogen atom | Hydrogen molecule | Human Molecule | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
H | → | 2H2 | → | C | → | H2O | → | MI1 | → | MI2 | → | MI3 | → | MI4 | → | MI5 | → | MI6 | → | MIi | → | 2MH | ||||
| | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Not alive! No soul! No consciousness No brain (thinking) No free will! | ↑ | | | | Alive? Has a soul? Has free will? Is conscious? Has brain/thinks? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
The thinker who holds-fast to the ancient mythological doctrines of 'life', 'soul', 'consciousness', 'free will', 'choice', a 'brain', etc., will argue, to their grave, that, in some contrived-way or another, at one particular second in time, in the course of human evolution mechanism, that molecules, somehow, came to life, acquired souls, developed a free will, obtained the a state of consciousness, evolved the ability to think, among other now-defunct traits that do not apply to the hydrogen atom, nor to any other molecule, known in science. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(see correct formulations: animate chemistry, animate physics, animate thermodynamics) |
The visual of “equation overlay method: left, the 2008 Time magazine article “Why We Love”, common in hmolsciences, a combination of the Feynman problem solving algorithm and photo overlay of equations and scientific theory thought to govern human interactions onto a photo depiction of the phenomena of investigation; right the 2007 Human Chemistry textbook by American electrochemical engineer Libb Thims showing a combination reaction chemical equation overlay. |
Colloquial version of human chemistry |
Colloquial version of human chemistry by Ezra Nugroho (2009); which is similar to Canadian writer Chanel Wood's 2007 combination lock theory [18] |
“When I was first brought with this question of human chemistry, I was both completely mystified and very curious. Like most people, I’d never really stopped to think about it. But if chemistry in the social world is anything like chemistry is in the physical world, there has to be a logical, tangible definition.”
Steam engine and two people falling love? | ||
? ↔ | ||
Papin engine | Love the chemical reaction | |
The application of steam engine theory to the riddle of love is what is called the reverse engineering puzzle. In short, applying thermodynamics to human chemical reactions is done the same way thermodynamics is applied to chemical reactions, by study of the laws of operation of the 1690 Papin engine (basic heat engine). |
See main: human thermodynamicsThe generalized effect of interpersonal chemistry, particularly couple chemistry, as discussed by American film studies professor Martha Nochimson, in her 2002 book Screen Couple Chemistry, is an "energy issue". [8] The science of energy is thermodynamics.
See main: Human chemistry quotes; Chemical philosophy, Chemistry aphorismsThe following are random trivia quotes making intuitive references to the chemistry between humans:
“The only unions which are legitimate are those ruled by a genuine passion.”Stendhal (1783-1842)
French writer
On Love (1821)
“Love is in its ultimate analysis nothing but a chemical reaction.” Anon scientist (c.1920)
Quoted by Frederick Bennett
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Swill psychologist
Modern Man in Search of Soul (1933)
“Love is a romantic designation for a most ordinary biological process—or, shall we say, chemical—process … a lot of nonsense is talked and written about it.” Greta Garbo (1905-1990)
Swedish actress
Ninotchka (1939)
“I miss her smell, and the way she tastes. It’s a mystery of human chemistry and I don’t understand it, some people, as far as their senses are concerned, just feel like home.” John Cusack (1966-)
American actor
High Fidelity (2000)
“If, for example, chemistry deals with the composition, structure and properties of substances and with the transformations that they undergo, it cannot be classified as a science in any way whatsoever. For that reason, it should be situated somewhere between science and humanities! In order to have a sound perception of it, we must consider the external physical nature, that of chemical structures which make the external composition, as well as the internal, inner world of the being that comprises human chemistry, including emotions, feelings, sentiments, passions, sensations, thought and imagination. In the end, both disciplines are inseparable as fields of human knowledge. Both present new answers to the always stimulating novel questions we raise. The assumption that sciences must always be on top of universities' priorities, shoving humanities to the bottom, must be scrupulously reassessed!”— Anon (2018), “Sciences and the Irksome Controversy Surrounding Humanities” (Ѻ), Jordan Times, Feb 2
Some famous "chemistry of love" magazine covers. |
See main: music chemistry; also: music thermodynamicsThroughout history, people have often had a habit of singing about love and relationships, and in the last several decades, singing about love and relationships in terms of chemistry. In other words, people tend to sing about what they don't understand.
The 1962 song "The Chemistry of Love" by Al Hazan, singing about moonlight and falling in love, one of the first recorded "chemistry of love" style songs. | Cover to American alternative rock band Semisonic's 2001 album All About Chemistry, depicting relationships as reactions between molecules in beaker. | 2007 song “Chemistry” by Velvet, singing about concepts of flow, biology, electricity, and biogravity involved in the chemistry of falling in love. |
“A formula aside should help us crystallize into the chemistry of love.”
See main: Detractors, Objections to; Rossini debate, Moriarty-Thims debate; Libb Thims (attack)Since the 1809 publication of Goethe's Elective Affinities, and 2007 Human Chemistry by Thims, a revival and modern day reformulation of Goethe's treatise, wherein the characters are said to mirror the activities and behaviors of the chemicals, there has been a never-ending stream debate, people being either in favor of or against the chemical theory of humanity. [5] This seems to be reflective of recent polls which show that 34.5% of people do not think love is a chemical reaction and 43.5% of people do not think they are a 'giant molecule'. [29] Out of this, a dividing line has slowly been emerging in the hard scientific community as to whether or not modern human chemistry of human molecules is reality or fiction, i.e. whether or not a human is a molecule and if chemistry, physics, and thermodynamics can be applied to the study of human molecules. Some these points of view are listed below: [30]
Supporters: ~61% agree | Objectors: ~39% disagree | |||||
Georgi Gladyshev (1936-) Russian physical chemist | John Avery (1933-) Danish physicist and theoretical chemist | Jing Chen (c.1965-) Chinese-born Canadian mathematician | Christoph Wieland (1733-1813) German author | Tominaga Keii (1920-2009) Japanese chemical engineer | Steve Fuller (1959-) American philosopher and sociologist | |
Thinks that human chemistry (2007) symbolizes the beginning of a new era (epoch) in human history. | Thinks (2007) that human chemistry, with its focus on Gibbs free energy, looks at life in a unified way. | Has a "feeling" (2007) that human chemistry will eventually bring about the fundamental change in thinking in science. | Commented (1810) on Goethe's Elective Affinities, that it was nonsense and childish fooling around. | Commented (2004) on Goethe's Elective Affinities that it "did not add any scientific value." | Thinks (2005) that he is not a molecule and considers even the thought of the idea to be "infuriating". | |
Ted Erikson (1928-) American chemical engineer | Viktor Minkin (1965-) Russian biometrist | Satch Ejike (c.1950-) African-born American social scientist | Stephen Lower (c.1945-) Canadian physical chemist | Philip Moriarty (c.1965-) Irish thermal physicist | Ryan Grannell (c.1991-) Irish biochemistry student | |
Has the view (2007) that one cannot argue with the logic of human chemistry. | Believes (2007) that we can apply molecular terms and rules of molecular behavior to human behavior and does not find any arguments against human chemistry. | Thinks (2008) that human chemistry provides a reliable framework for an understanding of human bonding and bond rupturing. | Considers (2007) the idea of chemical reactions occurring between humans molecules to be a crackpot-subject, pseudoscience, and a lunatic notion. | Considers (2009) human chemistry to be pseudoscience and believes that quantum mechanics and entropy cannot be apply to people. | Thinks (2011) that Goethe’s Elective Affinities is a nutty theory, and that human chemistry is nothing but the former wrapped in lab coat. |
A CafePress.com human element golf shirt, themed on the 2006 Dow Corning “human element” advertising campaign, which American electrochemical engineer Libb Thims began wearing in 2012 in lecture to represent his hmolscience philosophical outlook. [14] |
Left: chemical alphabet word arrangement describing relationship chemistry, love, or something to this affect. Right: business chemistry humor. |