kwetzalkoatl

Many thanks, these are just the sort of considerations i was looking for! Although science fiction is my aim at this point, i certainly don't mean turn a blind to the scientific aspects of my ideas. Maybe I'll even go back for a 2nd term of Organic Chemistry someday...

It's for a piece of fiction I'm trying to write. I want to have a scientist growing plants in space, but need a compelling economic reason for him to grow said plants in the first place. On a side note, does your post indicate that homework questions not allowed here?

Are there any compounds that we can't synthesize, or that are grossly inefficient to synthesize using normal means? Given access to high technology, and plentiful resources, are there any compounds that would still need to be extracted, and could not be synthesized? Please speculate about the characteristics of such compounds. That is, what makes a compound hard to synthesize?