Snowflake Memes

What happens when organic chemists get snowed in during winter break? They draw molecular structures that would make your average undergrad cry. This monstrosity is what you'd get if a benzene ring had a midlife crisis and decided to reproduce exponentially. Sure, water molecules form beautiful hexagonal snowflakes in nature, but some chemist thought, "Not complex enough!" and created this phosphorus-nitrogen nightmare that would require its own chapter in a textbook. Good luck synthesizing this in the lab—you'd need three PhDs and a small country's research budget just to get started.