Watch: UCLA’s Neil Garg on how organic chemistry and piano keys are similar

A new video helps explain why one of the most-dreaded college classes is a wildly popular crowd favorite at UCLA. When taught by Neil Garg, UCLA's Kenneth N. Trueblood Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the normally dreaded course is the "most beloved class" on campus. In this video, "Changing Key and Chemistry" by Chemistry Shorts, Garg explores organic chemistry using a music analogy, then explains how chemists expanded the cancer-curing properties of the yew tree. Garg ends by delving into the importance of testing even so-called rules, as he did in his recent headline-making discovery of anti-Bredt olefins that broke a 100-year old rule of chemistry.

Chemistry Shorts aims to increase people's confidence in their understanding of chemistry and share how the chemical sciences are solving pressing societal and environmental problems. Its most recent film featured another member of UCLA's department of chemistry and biochemistry: UCLA scientist Maher El-Kady's work on zinc-ion batteries as a more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries.

The film series, founded by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, has been supported and endorsed by industry-leading organizations, including the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the American Association for Chemistry Teachers.