Ainan and the molecules that may never be

As I have written before, Ainan Celeste Cawley, my seven year old son, likes to design molecules. Yesterday he approached me with the air of someone about to discuss a delicate matter.

"Daddy, you know I like to make up molecules?"

"Yes."

"There is only one problem with my molecules, though they are new, and they have not been made before...there may be no way to synthesise them. Unless, they are found in nature."

Ainan's molecules were often very complex, quite large molecules of a curiously beautiful design: they were proposed parts of nature, designed by an artist. It would be a pity if Ainan's molecules, which are possible in theory, since they obey the laws of physics and chemistry, could never be constructed, owing to practical limitations of man's synthetic ability.

It was good to see that Ainan was not only thinking of molecules with a purpose and a function - but that he was also thinking of the practicalities of how they might be made. His mind was occupied by both the invented molecule and its synthetic route.

I had to agree with him, though...they might be unsynthesizable, by present means, or at least very difficult to synthesize - unless nature had a hand in it, with its more complex ways.

We did an internet search for some of his molecules - but didn't manage to find them. So, we had original molecules on paper, that might have no real world counterpart, at present, in the modern world. Pretty to look at though.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, my scientific child prodigy son, aged seven years and one month, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The importance of play for children

In browsing on the internet, I have come across several sites that list incredibly packed timetables for children. I found these really surprising. You see, I never make a timetable for my children: I let them, largely speaking, do as they please.

My toddler, Tiarnan, ten months investigates every nook and cranny of our house. Fintan plays with his brothers and his toys. Ainan chooses either to play with them, or to indulge himself in mental games: drawing molecules, inventing reactions, writing little books, inventing devices. For Ainan this is play - it is what he chooses to do. Never did I require of him that he do these things. He spontaneously does these things of his own accord. The idea that one might timetable a day packed with intellectual activities for one's children is a strange one to me - for it takes away the fun of discovery. Children are able to discover their interests and their world, by themselves, if you let them. From what I have seen in my children, their gifts and talents will emerge naturally as they engage with the world.

(If you would like to read more of my gifted children, Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, Fintan, three, or Tiarnan, a baby, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-blogspot.html I also write of gifted education, intelligence, IQ, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

At no stage did either of Ainan's parents sit down and say: "You are going to be scientist...here, do this." He naturally chose to do things that lead us to observe that he IS a scientist. All that Ainan is, is emerging naturally from Ainan. I don't think that any other way would be anything but forced and false, resulting in a child at odd's with its own essential nature.

The child knows what the child is: let the child become that, then.

(If you would like to read more of my scientific child prodigy son, Ainan Celeste Cawley and his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, savant, the creatively gifted, adult genius, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks)

Molecular designer: a chemical genius at work

Ainan Celeste Cawley is seven years old and two weeks, yet last week, he sat himself down and designed his own homologous series of chemicals. This is a series of chemicals with shared characteristics, and which vary across the series in an orderly fashion. He had a particular purpose in mind for these chemicals, which I am not going to divulge - each would perform the stated purpose.

He drew the chemical molecular structure on A4 paper and showed how the members of the series varied across the series by drawing several examples of his series.

It is clear to me that his chemicals would work in the prescribed way: they would perform the function he desired. The structures, too, were correct.

It seems to me an unusual demonstration of the scientific imagination for a seven year old, just turned, to be designing his own chemicals. His creations are viable chemical entities that would have the properties he intends. He often draws chemicals and has been doing so this past year. Yet, this was the first time, I saw him draw an homologous series.

I do not know what he will become - but I can say what he is: a boy who plays with science, as others do with toys, a boy whose ideas are functional aspects of chemical reality, a boy who does what only an adult scientist might be expected to do - to look for new answers to problems, as he has done in this series.

He has many interests. Perhaps one of his interests foreshadows what he will become. If he becomes a designer of molecules, this post would have pinned down the time in which it began.

Happy thinking Ainan!

(If you would like to read more about Ainan Celeste Cawley, my scientific child prodigy son, aged seven years and two weeks, or his gifted brothers, then please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)