However, this is another layer of humor, as you can neither buy individual atoms or get a price for them, showing her lack of understanding of chemistry. She is suggesting buying atoms in bulk, which should be even cheaper than buying them individually. At the bottom is a sum showing she needs 14 total, again with an illegible price. The paper seems to list prices for buying 6 carbon, 5 hydrogen, 1 nitrogen and 2 oxygen atoms, although the units aren't specified and the very small prices are illegible. Megan is holding a note listing how many of the four types of atoms she needs to build one molecule of the compound she wants to assemble. Some big molecules such as synthetic DNA are constructed chainwise from sub-units, and in these cases the difficulty is (approximately) linear with size.
Literal big molecules tend to be more difficult to synthesize than little ones, with the difficulty increasing more rapidly than the size. It could be used to refer to the global chemical industry, but that industry is neither seen as being excessively powerful, nor does it impact consumers as visibly, and so doesn't merit a similar nickname. "Big Molecule," on the other hand, is not a common term. Consequently, many consumers believe that their influence allows them to price products unfairly and prevent competition. These companies are sufficiently wealthy and influential that they exert significant control over the marketplace, and even over government policy.
Big Oil and Big Pharma are real industrial nicknames, referring to large industries run by a relatively small number of massive and hugely profitable companies.
"Big Molecule" is an industry nickname like Big Oil or Big Pharma, amusing in its own right, and conceivably implying that the chemical industry is conspiring to prevent end users from synthesizing their own compounds. The characters' naivety also gives rise to the humor of the comic. Megan seems to be imagining synthesis as a much simpler process without reactivity, energy release, or hazardous intermediate substances. Such issues answer Cueball's question as to why more places don't manufacture their own compounds from atoms. Nitrobenzene, one of the C 6H 5NO 2 compounds, is an excellent example because it is explosive and extremely toxic, and its synthesis is highly exothermic, making it one of the most dangerous syntheses in the chemical industry. It's conceivable that this could change as biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology develop, but it is a far fetch given the relative ease of synthesizing chemicals from other chemicals. In any case, producing chemicals from their constituent elements, or - as is far more common - precursor compounds, is difficult and time-consuming, usually requires expensive equipment, and is often fraught with peril. If they need chemicals in bulk, or only very small quantities, synthesizing them might be cost effective. However, we don't know whether Megan and Cueball work in a laboratory, factory, or some other industrial setting. They are also not able to benefit from synergies by simultaneous synthesizing different compounds. In-house chemical synthesis is usually not cost effective, because end users have limited time and are generally unable to leverage the economies of scale inherent in bulk manufacturing by specialist industrial firms. That work is the primary purpose of the global chemical industry. While many expensive chemicals are composed of inexpensive and easily available elements, "assembling" those elements into specific molecules is rarely as simple as Megan implies. The ambiguity of chemical formulae is one of the jokes in the comic.
She suggests assembling chemicals from atoms "bought in bulk," holding a sheet of paper with the empirical formula C 6H 5NO 2, which designates hundreds of compounds including nitrobenzene, niacin, isonicotinic acid, and picolinic acid, followed by their component elements listed with quantities and prices. In this comic, Megan mentions to Cueball that their company spends a lot on chemicals for which you can find formulas online. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. Anything you can do to review it and make it better is welcome. This page has been subject to _extensive_ vandalism and misediting, and for a time editors were unable to contribute content, which has been lost. This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by BIG ISOMER - Please change this comment when editing this page.
#Spacechem no thanks necessary how to#
All genres 2.Title text: It's hard to believe, but lots of kids these days ONLY know how to buy prepackaged molecules.
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