NanoPutian

    NanoPutian is a class of organic compounds that were synthesized by James Tour et al. for educational purpose in 2003. The word “NanoPutian” consists of “nano” and “putian”. “Nano” is a prefix means 1*10^-9, like we usually say "nanometer", "nanogram", and “nanotechnology”. “Putian” originated from the word “lilliputian”, which means a very little world and refers to a fictional nation in Gulliver’s Travels called “Lilliput”.

    Let’s see some examples of NanoPutian and you will definitely have a deeper insight into them.

This is NanoKid:

    What's more, there are various characters that only differ from their heads, and here are some examples*:

  
  These are polymer and dimer of NanoPutian:

    Though the research of NanoPutian may seen meaningless, what Professor J. Tour was trying to do is to introduce more young scientist and the public to the microscopic nano-world. Also, he demonstrated to us that organic chemistry had already been well-developed and can synthesize almost any structure we want. 

    But for me, I think he was conveying that “scientist should study what they are interested in”. After all, the interest is the biggest motivation putting forward a scientist on the way of research. Someday, I hope I can become a chemist and devoted myself into studying what interested me, too!

    The article must end, but I wish you can be inspired and develop a long-lasting interest in chemistry as I do!

*The wave-like bond in the picture means bond without certain configuration.

#The original paper may help you with more details about NanoPutian, and here is the link: http://chemistry.mdma.ch/hiveboard/picproxie_docs/000466038-anthropomorphic.molecules.art.pdf