'The Wedding of Mary and Joseph'
by Giotto (Capella degli Scrovegni)
Gulliver constrained by a multitude of 'weak' interactions
'Gulliver's travels' by Jonathan Swift
Molecules searching around for a suitable partner with whom to unify are the key role players of this research project. Whether an initial encounter results in a final engagement, depends on many critical issues, such as reciprocal compatibility in terms of size and shape, complementary reactivity, proper alignment of reactive groups, and medium effects.
Weak interactions are like human beings in the sense that they exhibit typical grouplike behavior. As an individual they are feeble, easy to break, and sometimes hard to detect. However, when acting together they become much stronger and lean on each other. This phenomenon, which in scientific terms is called cooperativity, is based on the fact that 1+1 is more than 2.