I love crystals, the beauty of their form and their formation; liquids, dormant, distilling, sloshing!; the fumes, the odors - good and bad; the rainbow of colors; the gleaming vessels, of every size, shape and purpose.

Robert Burns Woodward, Arthur C. Cope Lecture, 1973

Quite simply, I like making crystals. Sometimes they're useful products, sometimes it's just purifying starting materials.... either way, crystals are awesome.