Molecular graphics

Molecular graphics uses computers to display and manipulate molecular structures. It helps scientists inspect molecular shape, chemical properties, and interactions.

Molecular visualization: Computer-based representation of molecular structures and properties for scientific analysis. The broader practice includes molecular graphics alongside other ways to render molecular data.
Cartesian coordinates: A system that specifies a point's position using distances along perpendicular axes. Molecular structure files commonly encode each atom's position with three Cartesian coordinates.
Molecular docking: Computational prediction of how one molecule binds within another molecule's structure. Graphics lets researchers inspect predicted poses and contacts between a ligand and target.
Cyrus Levinthal: An American molecular biologist known for work on protein folding and early molecular graphics. His laboratory helped pioneer computer-based visual display of molecular structures.
Ball-and-stick model: A molecular representation showing atoms as spheres and bonds as connecting rods. This familiar display makes connectivity and approximate molecular geometry easy to inspect.
Chemical bond: An attractive interaction that holds atoms together in a molecule or extended structure. Bond connectivity informs how molecular graphics draw and interpret molecular frameworks.
Structure-based drug design: Drug discovery guided by the three-dimensional structure of a biological target. Interactive molecular views help relate binding-site shape to candidate drug design.
Levinthal's CPK model: An early computer-generated space-filling depiction of a protein structure associated with Cyrus Levinthal's group. It demonstrated how computer graphics could reveal the packed three-dimensional form of proteins.
Space-filling model: A molecular representation using overlapping spheres to approximate the volume occupied by atoms. It emphasizes molecular surface and steric bulk rather than clearly separated bonds.
Molecular geometry: The three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in a molecule. Graphics makes molecular geometry directly inspectable through rendered atomic positions.

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Ribbon diagramNarrower topic: Ribbon diagrams are one established molecular-graphics representation.