The Most Interesting Molecule You’ve Never Heard of

For my anniversary, I wanted to discuss cyclooctatetraene (COT) and why it’s so goddamn fascinating

To celebrate Organic Live’s successful orbit around the sun (i.e., it’s my first anniversary of writing), I thought I would go into a story about my logo — what the molecule is and why it’s my favorite. Beware though, this story involves some chemistry jargon. Do not fret! I promise I will walk you through it all in the simplest terms possible (if I don’t, let me know in the comments!).

A detailed and accurate image of my logo, COT; the black balls are carbon atoms, the white ones are hydrogen atoms, and the the white sticks are covalent bonds (double white sticks means a double bond)

As I mentioned, the molecule in my logo has the common name “cyclooctatetraene.” Before we go any further, there is a systematic way that molecules get their names, especially organic molecules, that is derived from the structure of the molecule. BTW, “organic” within the realm of chemistry means “carbon-containing.” When someone says “I’m an organic chemist,” it just means he/she studies molecules that contain mostly carbon (I’ve discussed how organic became synonymous with carbon in a previous article). Let’s break down…