Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Here from metaquotes, as I was wondering what on earth isosceles triangles had to do with drug inserts. I believe what you're seeing is a common way of denoting the orientation of the atoms hanging off the benzene ring. Anything that's attached via a simple straight line is in the plane of the page. Things with a solid black triangle are coming out the front, i.e., towards you as you look at the molecule. The ones that are denoted by the banded triangles are going out the back, i.e., away from you. In organic chemistry, the orientation is everything. For instance, one orientation of thalidomide is beneficial (prevents morning sickness); the other is very much not (causes extremely severe birth defects).

According to Wikipedia, this particular projection is called the Natta projection (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natta_projection). Other common ones include the Newman projection (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman_projection) and the Fischer projection (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_projection).