Even Scientists Dream Sometimes

Click here to listen to this feature

There have been a surprising number of scientific advances made by researchers who attributed their idea to the inspiration of a dream.  Take for example, the German chemist, Friedrich Kekule.  In 1865, Kekule had a dream which gave him the idea for the structural formula of the chemical benzene.  Benzene is important because it forms the basis of many dyes, drugs such as aspirin, high octane gasoline, synthetic detergents, plastics, and fabrics such as Dacron.  Understanding its structure was a huge advance in chemistry.

In his speech marking the fiftieth anniversary of his proposal, Kekule said, "I turned my chair to the fire and dozed.  Atoms began gambling before my eyes.  But what was that?  A snake in my vision had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled before my eyes.  As if by a flash of lightning I awoke, and spent the rest of the night working out the consequences of my dream."

It was this dream that led Kekule to propose a ring structure for benzene.  However, it took Kekule fifty years to confirm the rumours that he got his idea from a dream.

Kekule died before the prestigious Nobel prizes came into existence.  However, he was just the kind of candidate Nobel had in mind when he said, "I would like to help dreamers who find it difficult to get on in life."

So next time you doze by the fire, remember major advances in science have come from the inspiration of a fireside dream.