Building Bridges Between Inorganic and Organic Chemistry (Nobel Lecture)

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Robert B. Woodward, a supreme patterner of chaos, was one of my teachers. I dedicate this lecture to him, for it is our collaboration on orbital symmetry conservation, the electronic factors which govern the course of chemical reactions, which is recognized by half of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. From Woodward I learned much: the significance of the experimental stimulus to theory, the craft of constructing explanations, and the importance of asethetics in science. I will try to show you how these characteristics of chemical theory may be applied to the construction of conceptual bridges between inorganic and organic chemistry.