Molecular modeling Memes

The ultimate chemistry personality clash! On the left, we've got Michael Frisch (creator of Gaussian software) raging like someone just told him water isn't polar. Meanwhile, John Stanton is just vibing with his Gaussian calculations like it's a fun little hobby. This is basically the computational chemistry equivalent of "I'm just here to have a good time and honestly feeling so attacked right now." Chemistry nerds know the drama - Gaussian software has some infamously restrictive licensing that makes computational chemists want to throw their computers into a vat of hydrofluoric acid. The contrast between Frisch's intense gatekeeping and Stanton's casual enjoyment is pure scientific comedy gold!

The eternal computational arms race summed up in four panels! Scientists drool over fancy hardware specs (32 cores! 32GB RAM! 2TB NVMe!) only to use all that power for... visualizing a handful of atoms. The tiny molecular visualization on that monster rig is the computational equivalent of buying a Ferrari to drive to your mailbox. Molecular modeling software like VESTA is notoriously resource-hungry, but this is taking it to another level. Every computational chemist just felt personally attacked.

The eternal struggle of biochemists trying to avoid thermodynamics while studying protein folding! Pure chemists smugly embrace entropy and enthalpy, while biochemists are stuck looking at these colorful protein visualization programs wondering how these complex molecules actually fold into functional shapes. The molecular modeling software (CCP4MG) shown here is the biochemist's way of saying "I'll just visualize it and hope nobody asks me about Gibbs free energy calculations." Spoiler alert: protein folding is literally governed by thermodynamic principles that determine which conformations are energetically favorable. You can run from thermodynamics, but those alpha helices and beta sheets will find you!

The eternal nightmare of organic chemistry students everywhere! That "S" drawing is the infamous Schlegel diagram of cyclohexane - the molecular structure that haunts dreams and ruins GPAs. Drawing this perfectly on exams is like trying to perform brain surgery with oven mitts. The reply "Now load it in chem3d an optimize" is the modern chemist's equivalent of "just use a calculator" - completely missing the existential crisis of having to draw these by hand during tests. The perfect representation of that moment when you realize your beautifully drawn chair conformation looks more like abstract art than actual science.