Editing Talk:Structural chemistry

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==Wiki Education assignment: CHEM 300==
{{dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment | course = Wikipedia:Wiki_Ed/The_University_of_British_Columbia/CHEM_300_(Fall_2023) | assignments = [[User:Huberyshen|Huberyshen]], [[User:Sunshine8899|Sunshine8899]] | reviewers = [[User:Bird flock|Bird flock]], [[User:Toady03|Toady03]], [[User:Mxmansa|Mxmansa]], [[User:Icocci|Icocci]] | start_date = 2023-09-06 | end_date = 2023-12-07 }}

<span class="wikied-assignment" style="font-size:85%;">— Assignment last updated by [[User:CHEM 300 UBC CJA|CHEM 300 UBC CJA]] ([[User talk:CHEM 300 UBC CJA|talk]]) 18:02, 8 November 2023 (UTC)</span>

== A mess? ==

A major rewrite seems to be needed for an article worthy of this topic. [[User:Ldm1954|Ldm1954]] ([[User talk:Ldm1954|talk]]) 14:12, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

==Merge proposal==
I propose to merge [[Chemical structure]] into this article.  We could do the merge the other way too: merge  [[Structural chemistry]] into [[Chemical structure]].  This job seems pretty obvious, but maybe I am missing something. --[[User:Smokefoot|Smokefoot]] ([[User talk:Smokefoot|talk]]) 21:16, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

:'''Support''' To me "structural chemistry" is that subfield of chemistry devoted to understanding and applying structure, while "chemical structure" is resulting understanding developed by that subfield. However considering the states of these articles, I would agree that merging content and having "chemical structure" redirect (with the {{tl|R with possibilities}} apology) to a subsection of [[Structural chemistry]] would be satisfactory. [[User:Johnjbarton|Johnjbarton]] ([[User talk:Johnjbarton|talk]]) 02:00, 4 January 2026 (UTC)
:'''Comment''' To me, chemical structure focuses on drawing the 2D structure of a molecule, generally a [[small molecule]], although proteins can be represented by amino acids and DNA/RNA by base-pair letters. The current Structural chemistry article would need a lot of work to add the various techniques used to ascertain 3D structure. Some of them were in the article before recently edited, although I see the LLM influence that led to its pairing down. I'm leaning oppose because I see the topics as separate enough, i.e. "Chemical structure" is primarily 2D and "Structural chemistry" is 3D. [[User:Nnev66|Nnev66]] ([[User talk:Nnev66|talk]]) 18:16, 5 January 2026 (UTC)
::{{ping|Ldm1954|Johnjbarton}} Comment to Nnev66.  I hear you, there is a nuance (or more) difference in "chem speak" between the Chemical structure vs Structural chemistry.  Here is the predicament: maintenance and quality.  The main contributor to this article was someone doing homework ([[user:Huberyshen]]).  Chemical structure gets about 5-10 edits per year.  Many or most of these editors, well intentioned as they are,  would not know the difference between chemical structure and structural chemistry  The editors in the ProjectChemistry  are few. To make matters worse, the number of inorganic chemists are fewer still.  Ultimately the core content of structural chem is inorganic (and materials science): packing, iconic motifs, dimensionality, structure-property relationships (off the top of my head).  One might say, "well what about organic structures?" At the risk of being dismissive, organic structural chemistry is chump change relatively speaking because organic is so dominated by molecular chemistry, electronic structure is simple, and intermolecular interactions are flimsy. I digress.  So, it would be a lot easier to have one good article. Also, already the articles overlap. --[[User:Smokefoot|Smokefoot]] ([[User talk:Smokefoot|talk]]) 21:16, 5 January 2026 (UTC)
::I think you are thinking about [[chemical structure diagram]]s. All real chemical structures are 3D. [[User:Johnjbarton|Johnjbarton]] ([[User talk:Johnjbarton|talk]]) 18:52, 5 January 2026 (UTC)
:::True, but I'm just sharing how I've heard the term used amongst chemists, and that's the reason I hesitate to merge the articles. The reason I labeled what I wrote as "Comment" rather than "Oppose" or "Weak oppose" was because I understand the term "chemical structure" can mean 2D or 3D. [[User:Nnev66|Nnev66]] ([[User talk:Nnev66|talk]]) 19:01, 5 January 2026 (UTC)