2009 backdrop to YouTube's Human Chemistry 101 channel, showing that a decrease in Gibbs free energy (ordinate) over time (abcissa) signifies favored human chemical reactions.

In science, human chemistry is the study of reactions between people. [1] In 1948, American self-defined 'human chemist' Thomas Dreier gave the following definition of the subject of human chemistry: [12]

“Human chemistry, the study of how people ‘chemically’ react to one another, is an important branch of the science of human nature.”

A central aspect in human chemistry is the definition of the person as a "human molecule" (a term coined by by French historian Hippolyte Taine in 1869), or chemical species A or B, being the atomic definition of a person. [4] In this perspective, human chemistry is the quantitative study of reactions between human molecules and the structures they form. A defining aspect of human chemistry is that human chemical reactions occur over a surface, namely the earth's surface, as studied in the subjects of surface chemistry and surface thermodynamics; surfaces which act as a substrate and or catalyst. In chemical equation form, basic human reactions, such as couple formation (combination reaction) or relationship breakup (bond dissolution), take the form of simple chemical equations, such as:

A + B → AB (bond formation)

AB → A + B (bond dissolution)

Likewise, more complicated reactions entail the use of coupled mechanisms, molecular intemediates, or effects such as Müller dispersion forces. A second aspect of human chemistry, is the quantum mechanical definition of the human chemical bond A≡B between two human molecules, such as the attachment in an intimate romantic relationship. The first depictions of human chemical reactions were made by German polymath Johann von Goethe (1809), German science historian Jeremy Adler (1987), American computational chemist David Hwang (2001), and Canadian writer Chanel Wood (2007). The world's first full textbook on human chemistry, namely Human Chemistry (Volume One) and Human Chemistry (Volume Two), was written by American chemical engineer Libb Thims in 2007. YouTube's Human Chemistry 101 channel was started in 2008 by Thims, scheduled as a semi-weekly educational video series on the chemistry of human interactions. [10]

Cover of German polymath Johann Goethe's 1809 Elective Affinities (Penguin edition, 2005) (324-pages).

Goethe's affinities

See main: Goethe's human chemistry

The science of human chemistry was founded with the 1809 publication of the semi-biographical scientific novella Elective Affinities by German polymath Johann von Goethe (IQ = 210), who viewed human relationships as reactions between chemical species, being predetermined by chemical affinity force relations as are found on standard affinity tables. [2]

In particular, a year before publication Goethe, who had been studying chemistry for a period of forty-years, told his friend Riemer that ‘his idea for the new novella was to portray social relationships and their conflicts symbolically’, as in a, b, ac, abd, abcd, etc., a statement in reference to a Scottish physician and chemist William Cullen’s 1757 pioneering development of affinity reaction diagrams:

in which, for instance, as diagrammed above, if chemical species A and B are attached in a weakly bonded chemical union, signified by the bonding bracket “{“, ordered such that if species C were introduced into the system, the greater affinity preference of A for C would cause A to displace B and to thus form a new union with C, which equates to the following in modern terms:

AB + C → AC + B

and that furthermore, according to Goethe, ‘the moral symbols used in the natural sciences were the elective affinities discovered and employed by the great Bergman’ (A Dissertation on Elective Attractions, 1775). [11] In other words, what is moral or amoral, in Goethe’s view, is a point of view inherent in the laws of chemistry according to which species react.

American writer Thomas Dreier's 1948 We Human Chemicals picturing people as elements on a periodic table.

Dreier’s human chemistry
In 1910, American author Thomas Dreier published a short 27-page pamphlet entitled Human Chemicals, laying out the theory that people are "human chemicals", a premise that he continued to build over the next forty-years in various publications. His central point of wisdom was that if there is an 'explosion' (or workplace tension) at the office or factory, that it is not the fault of the reactants (or workers) but a fault of the chemist (or company executive). A more expanded take on this view was presented in his 1948, 122-page, book We Human Chemicals, in which he argues that everything is a matter of human chemistry in the view that “we are all human chemicals and human chemists”. The following is an example quote:

“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.”

The book conatins chapters on how a country is a chemical laboratory, the human chemistry of confident salesmanship, how a happy marriage is a matter of human chemistry, how business executives can act as catalysts, and how every executive is a human chemist, among other chapters. [12]

Cropped cover section of English-born American engineer William Fairburn's 1914 book Human Chemistry (55-pages).

Fairburn's human chemistry
The first actually book titled "human chemistry" was the short 55-page booklet Human Chemistry written by American naval engineer William Fairburn in 1914. Fairburn's human chemistry, written mostly using chemical analogies, focused on the occupational aspects of the variations of work producing reactions between "human chemical elements" in factories, as viewed through the eyes of the foreman the "human chemist". [3] Fairburn argues that the "reactions resulting from combinations of individuals" can be determined and improved though measures of personal energies, entropies, and affinities, etc., so to eliminate loss through unnecessary fatigue and "wasteful reaction".

Cover of American chemical engineer Libb Thims' 2007 textbook Human Chemistry (824-pages), volume one.

Thims' human chemistry

See main: Human Chemistry (textbook), Human Chemistry (textbook) (origin)

In circa 1995, University of Michigan chemical engineering student Libb Thims began to ruminate on the issue of as to how chemical thermodynamics applied to mate selection. In 2002, after figuring out how relationship feasibilities could be defined in terms of changes in "before" and "after" states of enthalpies (ΔH) and entropies (ΔS), Thims began writing a manuscript on the science human thermodynamics.

In circa 2006, it began to become apparent, after numerous arguments with other scientists, that prior to the successful establishment of any type of science of the study of reactive systems of humans, that a precursor science of "human chemistry" would need to be situated, establishing the fundamental view that humans are molecules (human molecules) and that life (or a state of animated existence) consists of chemical reactions between human molecules. At about this time, also, Thims discovered the great work of Goethe. Subsequently, killing two birds with one stone, namely explaining Goethe's Elective Affinities in a modern sense and writing a basic introductory book on human chemistry, in September 2007, after eighteen months and fourteen days of work, Thims published the first textbook, 824-pages in length, on the subject of human chemistry (pictured adjacent). A spin-off of this was the publication of the 2008, equation-free, 120-page booklet The Human Molecule, readable at junior high or high school science level.

Cultural views
In the cultural lexicon, the generalized theory that a certain type of “chemistry” exists between successful couples is prominent, as in romantic chemistry, social chemistry, sexual chemistry, relationship chemistry, interpersional chemistry, screen couple chemistry, etc. Yet, the fact that human chemistry is not a standardized school subject, however, leaves the subject open to generalized theory speculation.

Spine view of the two-volume textbook Human Chemistry (2007).

An example, is the June 2007 article “A Questions of Social Chemistry” by Canadian writer Chanel Wood, who when thinking about the question of human chemistry, was “completely mystified and very curious”. [9] In her analysis of the question, Wood asks: “what exactly is chemistry between two people?” She states that, “few people actually seem to be able to define it” and that, for the most part, “the majority of us have never given it a deeper thought, or if we have, we came to the highly logical definition of “that intangible something”… But does that really explain anything?” Wood states, in excellent form, that:

“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.”

In conclusion of her thoughts on the issue, she outlines a combination lock theory of dating arguing that a relationship can be thought of, using the reaction model of single people as "reactants", as a:

Reactant + Reactant → Product

chemistry point of view; such that "chemistry" is a result of all the elements between any two people—character, personality traits, timing, goals, dreams, priorities, lifestyle, etc., and how they ‘react’ with the other person’s elements.

Human thermodynamics

See main: human thermodynamics

The generalized effect of interpersonal chemistry, particularly couple chemistry, according to American film studies professor Martha Nochimson, is an "energy issue". [8] The science of energy is thermodynamics. The science of "human thermodynamics", subsequently, divided into human chemical thermodynamics, the study of the properties of heat, work, energy, entropy, chemical potential, and external forces in reactive systems, with focus on changes in equilibrium and the effects of irreversibility, and human statistical thermodynamics, the study of the distribution of total energy over a set number of non-interactive identical systems or chemical entities, is the study of this human energy issue.

To exemplify the idea of "good chemistry", from the 2002 book Screen Couple Chemistry, film provides for a means to capture human chemical reactions on film. The undeniable chemistry seen and felt between classic silver screen stars, such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers or Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, according to Nochimson, generates a kind of “raw energy” in which the relationships themselves become “freestanding energy vortexes” where couples become bigger than the films they made. What is good in contrast to what is bad (or evil) in chemistry, however, is a thick subject; generally having to do with spontaneity and the direction of energy flows.

The natural dynamics of good or visually pleasing reactions is what yields the unforgettable screen chemistry. Explaining these effects thermodynamically is the most advanced subject, but actuates according to the laws of thermodynamics, particularly the combined law of thermodynamics.

German author Christoph Wieland; commented about Goethe, on his Elective Affinities, that it was nonsense and childish fooling around.

Objections to

See main: Human thermodynamics (objections to)

Since the 1809 publication of Goethe's Elective Affinities, wherein the characters are said to mirror the activities and behaviors of the chemicals, there has been a never-ending stream of criticism regarding the chemical nature of the human being. [5] In 1810, for instance, Goethe's fellow author and neighbor Christoph Wieland sent a letter (which he suggested should be burned after it is read) to his close friend German philologist and archeologist Karl Böttiger stating that: [6]

"To all rational readers, the use of the chemical theory [in Elective Affinities] is nonsense and childish fooling around."

In modern terms, to cite a similar example, in 2007 Canadian chemist Stephen Lower considered the following statement, written by American chemical engineer Libb Thims "human chemistry is the study of reactions between individuals who are viewed as chemical species and with the energy, entropy, and work that quantify these processes. In modern human chemistry, people are viewed as chemical species, or specifically human molecules, A or B, and processes such as marriage or divorce are viewed as chemical reactions between individuals...", to be crackpot, meaning it is something akin to an eccentric or lunatic notion, and listed it among a grouping of pseudoscience subjects. [7] Both Wieland and Lower, to note, based their objections, predominately, on religious grounds.

Quotes

“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.”

– Rob (John Cusack), High Fidelity, 2000 film

See also

● Endorphine theory of love ● Love the chemical reaction ● Music chemistry

● ReactionMatch.com ● Science-based online matching ● Social chemistry

References
1. Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume One), (preview), (Google books). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
2. Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume Two), (preview), (Google books). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
3. Fairburn, William Armstrong. (1914). Human Chemistry. The Nation Valley Press, Inc.
4. Thims, Libb. (2008). The Human Molecule, (preview) (Google Books). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
5. Tantillo, Astrida O. (2001). Goethe's Elective Affinities and the Critics. New York: Camden House.
6. Wieland, Christoph Martin. (1810). "Letter to Karl August Böttiger" July 16. Weimar. Quoted from Tantillo 2001, pg. 9-10.
7. (a) Lower, Stephen. (2007). “List of Flim-flam, Pseudoscience, and Nonsense”, Online listings.
(b) In regards to conflict of interest in the case of Lower, a point to note is that he is religiously predisposed or biased, e.g. one of his favorite websites is the Scary Bible Quotes site. This is a common factor to look for behind a person's motives to objecting to a science of "human chemistry".
8. Nochimson, Martha P. (2002). Screen Couple Chemistry, (pg. 13). Auston, Tx.: University of Texas Press.
9. Wood, Chanel. (2007). "A Question of Social Chemistry", June 06. Sociology, ChanelWood.com.
10. Human Chemistry 101 - YouTube.com.
11. (a) Wiese, Benno von. (1951). Anmerkungen to Die Wahlverwandtschaften. In Goethe’s Werke, edited by Benno von Wiese. Vol. 19. Pg. 621, Hamberg: Wegener.
(b) Crosland, M. P. (1959). “The use of diagrams as chemical ‘equations’ in the lecture notes of William Cullen and Joseph Black.” Annals of Science, Vol 15, Num 2, June.
(c) Bergman, Torbern. (1775). A Dissertation on Elective Attractions. London: Frank Cass & Co.
12. Dreier, Thomas. (1948). We Human Chemicals: the Knack of Getting Along with Everybody (quote: pgs. 4+21). Updegraff Press.

Further reading
● Anon. (1887). "Human Chemistry", [URL], New York Times, 19 Sep.
● Kundis, Robin D. (1986). Human Chemistry (306-pgs). dissertation/thesis. Johns Hopkins University.
● Mueh, Hans J. (2006). “Human Chemistry Equation: Intent + Imagination + Initiative = High Achievement”, Audio Interview (MP3), 58:19-min, with Jim Meier, Oct. 31.

External links
● Human Chemistry - HumanChemistry.net
● Human Chemistry - NationMaster: Encyclopedia
● Human Chemistry T-Shirt – Zazzle.com
● 200th Anniversary Elective Affinities T-Shirt – Zazzle.com
● Interpersonal chemistry - Psychology Wiki, a Wikia wiki.