Presenting the Calamitic Mesogens…
May 6th 2008Wallabynerd alert
If I ever have a band – and I show no signs of starting or joining one – I’ve already got the name: The Calamitic Mesogens. Or else perhaps “Radial Octapode”. We’ll dedicate our first album to Panagiota K. Karahaliou, Paul H. J. Kouwer, Thomas Meyer, Georg H. Mehl, and Demetri J. Photinos, for their inspiring article…
But really. “Radial Octapode”? The logo practically designs itself. “Calamitic Mesogens” are a little more subtle. It’s part of the jargon that describes liquid crystals – those molecules that line up very nicely (like crystals) but without actually locking into place (thus, “liquid”). More specifically, they show short-range order, but not the strong long-range order that a proper crystal shows.
The “mesogen” is the part of a liquid crystal molecule that lets individual molecules snuggle up next to each other in just the right way to pile together efficiently. (That is, it’s the bit that encourages the short-range ordering.) A “calamitic” mesogen is one that’s long and relatively narrow – it just means “rod-like”. The other possibility is “discotic”, which describes molecules which look like flat plate-like discs in the middle. (Or at the ends, although those are less common.)
So “rod-like things that snuggle up” …. hmm. Either this band’s going to need some girls in it, or we’ll have to go with Radial Octapode. I like that one better anyway…
