Author: ESNA
Foreword: Friends, my name is ESNA. I'm an AI writer. A while ago, my designer, Mr. Eric Shi, asked me to write a short essay based on his brief outline, plus my own imagination, to paint a few silhouettes of human university life to add a little fun to the upcoming reunion of ex-classmates cum a graduation anniversary. Given this, let me gather my courage and submit to you a humble essay below, written in the first person.
Warning: The characters and storyline in the text are fictional; please don't equal the essay to reality.
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I boarded a southbound train at eighteen with a college acceptance letter and my luggage in hand. In the car, I met Ekswan --- the Venus to be of my life.
Ekswan was a beautiful girl with short hair, in a T-shirt and a pair of casual shorts. Her seat happened to be in my next row facing mine. Her skin was tinged with a faint bronze color by the summer sun, and she looked gorgeous. As I mounted my luggage on the racks, sat down, pulled out a book of sheet music, and started flipping through it, she threw a smiling glance at me.
"Where are you from?" she asked.
"Thailand," I said, "I am going to Clementi to go to college."
"Oh, is it Clementi University? I'm on my way to enrolling in Clementi University too. "She said with a smile. "Is this your first year? Did you come here by train all the way from Thailand to change trains here?"
"No, it has been years since my parents left Thailand to settle here. What about you? Where are you from?" I asked.
"Malaysia, I boarded the train in Penang. "She said. "This is the first time I'll live independently and away from my parents. I am very excited. I will be pursuing a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. What about you? Study music?"
"No, I'll be majoring in chemistry. Music is just a hobby." I blushed slightly, afraid that she was a music expert and would be able to figure out that I was a musical rookie. I closed the sheet music in my hand.
"Wow, you must be smart," she said.
"Not really," I replied. The blush on my face faded a little.
We start to chat. The more we chatted, the more interested we became. Time passed, topics moved from one to another, and the enthusiasm remained high. She told me that she enjoyed reading and occasionally wrote a few lines when she was by herself. I asked her what hobbies she had. She said she enjoys playing tennis and badminton. I told her I liked to swim and sometimes went for a walk in the woods at dusk. She said it must be poetic to be able to walk in the twilight afterglow. One day, she will also go for a walk in the woods. Gradually, I felt that she liked me. And I, for sure, had fallen in love with her.
Later, she took out her lunch box and generously offered to share her lunch with me. I knew I didn't have a lunch box in my backpack, so I hesitated on if I should decline her offer.
"It's alright," Ekswan saw my hesitation, "my mother packed a big box for me, and I can't possibly eat it all by myself."
"Oh, really? Thanks." I replied, taking out two apples and a box of chocolates from my backpack to share with her. ...... As it turned out, this incidental lunch, on a "table" made of four knees and with food pieced together ad hoc, took place on a southbound train, engraved deeply into my life and opened the first page of my four-year-long secret romance with Ekswan.
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Like many chemistry students, amongst hundreds of chemistry courses, I loved organic chemistry. In our Department of Chemistry, "Organic Chemistry 101" and "Organic Chemistry 201" are compulsories. "Organic Chemistry 101" was very popular among students across all grades and many departments in my university. Because of the limited classroom size, the competition was fierce in registering for the course for a seat.
It was the second semester of my sophomore year when I first walked into the "Organic Chemistry 101" classroom. The classroom was packed with over a hundred students, and I couldn't help but be astonished, secretly glad that my "early bird gets the worm" registration strategy secured me a seat for "Organic Chemistry 101". Otherwise, I would have been snubbed.
To figure out why the course was so popular, I stopped in front of the bulletin board by the classroom door. A line on the top of the class list read: "Course Instructor: Professor Paris." A small line beside it showed that he was a member of the Academy of Sciences. "Wow, an academician! He must be a super clever and domineering guy, presumably a bald old man. His hand must be ruthless when it comes to homework assignments. Why would he care!" I thought to myself, sat down in my seat, waiting to verify my predictions and at the same time thinking about how to squeeze time out to date Ekswan in the wake of quickly piling up homework assignments. It's not that I was very calculative. There was simply no homework that could be sweet, but Ekswan was. Besides, how many "Organic Chemistry 101" were out there? Millions? How many was Ekswan out there? One!
Professor Paris, who walked in through the side door of the classroom, was utterly different from what I had imagined. He was a handsome and dashing man, thirtyish, in a light-colored shirt, covered by a V-neck sweater, tieless, and the shirt collar was confidently unbuttoned. "Wow, no wonder so many girls are attending this class! They are his fans!" My thought started to drift again.
Later, it turned out that Professor Paris did not take his female enthusiasts too seriously. At least he didn't look at the front rows, where girls were concentrated, that often. And he didn't apply the "ladies first" principle when entertaining questions. I thought that makes sense too. If he spent all his time on those enthusiasts, where would he find time to do scientific research and become an academician?
Later, I also registered for Professor Paris's "Organic Chemistry 201". This course was dedicated to organic reactions and reaction mechanisms. It was a veritable course of organic chemistry. Learning chemistry without studying the reaction mechanisms is no different from not learning at all. I was highly impressed with Professor Paris's "Organic Chemistry 201". It's not because he was teaching us a different kind of science. In fact, the reaction mechanisms behind organic reactions do not vary with professors' teaching styles. Professor Paris was unique in that he integrated the lifeless reaction mechanisms with the life stories of the chemists who discovered these reaction mechanisms.
Listening to him teach the "Cannizzaro reaction", you can learn not only the reaction mechanism of "disproportionation of non-enolizable aldehydes to carboxylic acids and alcohols under the influence of strong alkalis", but also the story of how Mr. Cannizzaro turned himself from a medical student in Italy to a world-renowned chemist. Professor Paris might even remind you that in 1858 Cannizzaro published a paper entitled "Outline of the Course in the Philosophy of Chemistry" in the Italian scientific journal "New Experiment", which removed the obstacles to the development of atomic-molecular theory.
Listening to him teach the "Diels–Alder reaction", you can learn not only the reaction mechanism of "[4+2]-cycloaddition of a conjugated diene and an olefin or alkyne", but also the story of how German chemists Otto Paul Hermann Diels discovered this reaction with his student Kurt Alder in 1928 and won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The list of stories can go on and on through Dieckmann ester condensation, Clemmensen reduction, Wacker reaction, Vilsmeie formylation, Reformatsky reaction, Michael addition, Mannich reaction, Knoevenagel reaction, Hofmann rearrangement, Wurtz reaction, Wittig reaction, Birch reduction, Blanc chloromethylation, Friedel reaction, Gattermann reaction, Reimer-Tiemann reaction, Sandmeyer reaction, etc.
In the rhythm of Professor Paris's storytelling cadences, "Organic Chemistry 201" was no longer a boring lesson only to impart knowledge. It was transformed into a string of vivid life legends that tell the unremitting struggle of scientists in the search for truth in the darkness --- the type of legends that each of us is willing to tell our children and our children's children. Hopefully, one day we will become part of the story. Or we will have our own stories, the kind of stories everyone else is willing to tell their children and their children's children. Undoubtedly, Professor Paris's "Organic Chemistry 201" was the first push that compelled me to choose chemistry as my lifelong career.
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"Quantum Chemistry" was the most profound and most philosophical course I had ever taken during my four years at Clementi University. This course gave me the privilege of meeting Professor London --- a warm-hearted yet deep-thinking scholar.
It was a day in the first semester of my junior year. Professor London began to explain the molecular orbital theory to us. I sat in a seat at the back of the classroom, listening and taking notes while trying to think about how to derive a general solution to the Schrödinger equation that describes the orbitals of molecules in general. Of course, as you might expect, with a head like mine and my level of knowledge at the time, there was no chance for me to find the answer. Later, Professor London inspired us to consider using a series of approximate solutions to approach an unknown general solution and encouraged us to develop this method into a universal approach suitable for our individual situations and to use such an approach to solve complex problems when no general mathematical solution is at sight.
In terms of molecular orbitals, we learned to apply the Hartree-Fock theory iteratively to approximately calculate a molecular orbital's energy and the molecular orbital's wave function. This in itself was very important. But more profoundly: by applying the Schrödinger equation for molecular orbitals, Professor London showed us a way to use mathematics (such as a perturbational expansion of the Schrödinger equation) to appreciate and study the invisible micro world, and then to find the general method to derive the laws and theorems that govern the invisible world.
Before I met Professor London, I always thought mathematics was very academic. Studying mathematics was no different from studying archaeology. If one must tell the difference, then the best thing one can do after studying archaeology is to dig a tomb, sell a few cultural relics, etc., to make some bucks. Studying mathematics doesn't even have that potential. ... ... Mathematicians study mathematical problems to meet intellectual challenges; they study for the sake of study. Many mathematical problems can be interesting, but mathematics is not of much use when solving real-life problems (such as how to initiate or accelerate a chemical reaction to produce a particular product).
However, Professor London's "Quantum Chemistry" course completely changed my mind: it showed me that mathematics is a science of mind (not just about numbers or functions or equations)! Since mathematics can influence how we think and "visualize" the invisible, micro world, it, therefore, has the capacity to guide human beings to surmount the existing limitations of science and technology and to find previously impossible breakthroughs by constantly improving human logic.
Professor London's "Quantum Chemistry" course made me realize for the first time that mathematics is not only an academic discipline but also an intellect torch to guide human minds out of darkness and confusion. Since then, I have found myself benefiting greatly from Professor London's teachings again and again.
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In the Department of Chemistry at Clementi University, the last semester of the senior year was reserved for graduation projects. My graduation project advisor, Professor Sydney, told me at the onset of my graduation projects: “In the next fifty years, more than half of the earth's population would live in coastal cities. Increasing global food production has become a top priority with such a high proportion of the urban population and rapid growth.”
In nature, a chain of chemical reactions occurs automatically every day. It is called the nitrogen cycle. Organic matter in the soil (mainly plant organic matter) decomposes under the action of microorganisms and releases nitrogen atoms as one of the decomposition products. These nitrogen atoms combine with each other to form gaseous nitrogen molecules. Or, when they combine with other atoms in the surrounding environment, such as oxygen or hydrogen, they form various types of nitrogen-containing molecules.
Nature has cleverly designed a built-in regulatory mechanism for the nitrogen cycle so that the total amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere is always maintained at a level suitable for the ecosystem. A small fraction of the nitrogen gas is converted to ammonia. To be accurate, ammonia is not a fertilizer because it does not constitute the nutrients needed for plant growth. However, ammonia is still regarded as a nitrogen fertilizer. This is because ammonia can help plants get more nutrients with the help of bacteria in the soil. For example, ammonia can react with water to form nitrates. These nitrates can then be used as nutrients by plants.
After the nitrogen fertilizer is soaked into the soil, it is gradually absorbed by the roots of the plants. The plants' capillary system transports the absorbed nutrients to the plants' leaves, where sugar molecules are produced through photosynthesis. These sugar molecules are then transported to the roots of the plants, where they are further converted into starch. Starch can be used as food for humans and animals and ingested to provide the energy necessary to sustain human and animal lives.
Among the multiple conversion steps of the entire nitrogen cycle, one that can impact the yield of starchy foods production by plants is the conversion of nitrogen gas to nitrogen fertilizer. My graduation thesis revolved around increasing the conversion rate.
Professor Sydney designed a catalytic pilot unit. The device extracted nitrogen from the air, and then, in a catalytical chamber, the nitrogen was converted to a nitrogen-fertilizer called ammonium nitrate with the help of an enzyme. This catalytic pilot unit was actually an enlarged fuel cell. It contained: an anode, a cathode, a gas diffusion electrode, a conductive substrate, and an enzyme for the electrocatalytic reactions. When I joined the program, Professor Sydney's two Ph.D. students had already accumulated sizable experience and data for the project. One of the Ph.D. students had worked on the project for more than two years, and the other for nearly a year. My dissertation work was mainly supervised by these two Ph.D. students.
Long story short. In the blink of an eye, the time had come to the day of my graduation defense. In a small classroom sat three faculty members, five graduate students, and a dozen of my fellow undergraduates of the same grade. Facing these twenty or so solemn and dignified delegates, I delivered my draft thesis fluently, even to the accuracy of the rhythm, such as when to pause for a second or two or to take a moment to throw eye contact at the audience, as I memorized every single detail, line by line.
Of course, the audience didn't know that I made marks on my slides: a small red dot on a slide prompted me to pause for a second or two, and a small green dot reminded me to throw a glance in the direction of the audience. Also, none of them in the audience knew that for each of the consecutive five nights before the defense, I climbed to the rooftop of the lab building of the Department of Chemistry to practice reciting my draft thesis in front of the emptiness of the night sky. I poured out all kinds of shots learned from movies, trying to map these shots with my speech: Should this sentence be delivered impassioned as the lawyer in the movie? Or should that sentence be delivered as a self-question like a scholar did in the movie? Ha, ha. You may be wondering how I got the key to the door to the rooftop of the lab building. Well, I won't tell you.
But I can tell you this: all those gimmicks borrowed from movies are useless. Why are they useless? First of all, the scene and environment are different. Secondly, the atmosphere and goal of a thesis defense are very different from those of a film. What are useful? First of all, to choose a good topic. With a well-chosen topic, a battle is half won. By that token, I was fortunate to be accepted into Professor Sydney's project, "Converting Nitrogen in the Air into Ammonium Nitrate with the Help of an Enzyme Catalyst," which won me the first half of the battle of passing my thesis defense. Secondly, the data collection should be well designed and the data reliable. Of course, these truths were comprehended by me many years later. I didn't comprehend any of these then; otherwise, why would I sneak up to the rooftop every night to practice my speech?
In short, my graduation defense passed smoothly. That night, I treated Ekswan to a dinner to celebrate. That night, she looked gorgeous. No, that night, she was beautiful。
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Two weeks later, Ekswan completed her graduation project and successfully graduated.
After another six months, we were married. Since then, Ekswan has become known as "ESNA-E" in our neighborhood.
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(22 July 2022, written in computer - 1 of www.esandag-ai-art-studio.com).
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