The ‘WHAT’, ‘WHY’, ‘WHEN ‘HOW’ & ‘WHERE’ of CHEMISTRY

THE ’WHY’ OF CHEMISTRY- – Purpose and Significance

Chemistry is Every Where:
Chemistry is everywhere & it helps us understand the world around us! It's in the
food you eat, clothes you wear, water you drink, medicines, air, cleaners... you name
it. Chemistry sometimes is called the "central science" because it connects with
other sciences such as biology, physics, geology, and environmental sciences.
Why do leaves change color in the fall? Why are plants green? How is cheese made?
What is in soap and how does it clean? All these questions are answered by
Chemistry

Cooking is chemistry.

Everything you can touch or taste or smell is a chemical.

It explains everyday things, like why laundry detergent works better in hot water or
how baking soda works or why not all pain relievers work equally well on a
headache.

Chemistry helps us make educated choices about everyday products that we use.

Introduction
Chemistry is the study of matter and energy and the interactions between them. It
focuses on the properties of substances and the interactions between different types
of matter, particularly reactions that involve electrons.
The word chemistry comes from a modification during the Renaissance of the
word alchemy, which referred to an earlier set of practices that encompassed
elements ofchemistry, metallurgy, philosophy, astrology, astronomy, mysticism and m
edicine. Alchemy is often seen as linked to the quest to turn lead or other base metals
into gold, though alchemists were also interested in many of the questions of modern
chemistry.
The ‘What’ of Chemistry:
chemistry, the science that deals with the properties, composition, structure of
substances (elements and compounds), molecules and their
transformations ,the energy that is released or absorbed during these processes...
It is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter; it is also a natural
science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds composed
of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, properties, behavior and
the changes they undergo during a reaction with other substances.
It called the central science because it provides a foundation for understanding
both basic and applied scientific disciplines at a fundamental level. For example,
chemistry explains aspects of plant growth (botany), the formation of igneous rocks
(geology), how atmospheric ozone is formed and how environmental pollutants are
degraded (ecology), the properties of the soil on the moon (cosmochemistry), how
medications work (pharmacology), and how to collect DNA evidence at a crime
scene (forensics).
Chemists study the various substances in the world, with a particular focus on the
processes by which one substance is transformed into another.
Today, chemistry is defined as the study of the composition and properties of
elements and compounds, the structure of their molecules, and the chemical
reactions that they undergo.

Rather than starting with such modern concepts, though, a fuller appreciation of the
subject requires an examination of the historical processes that led to these
concepts.

HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY:
Chemistry, as we understand it today, is not a very old discipline. Chemistry was not
studied for its own sake, rather it came up as a result of search for two interesting
things:
 Philosopher’s stone (Paras) which would convert all baser metals e.g., iron
and copper into gold.
 ‘Elexir of life’ which would grant immortality.

Antoine Lavoisier is often considered to be the Father of Chemistry.

Antoine Lavoisier – Law of conservation of mass
Alfred Nobel – dynamite
Marie and Pierre Curie - radioactive elements polonium and radium.
Amedeo Avagadro - formulated Avogadro's law; Avogadro’s constant - 6.023 x
1023 molecules/ particles / atoms in 1 mole of any substance

Robert Boyle - discovered the inverse relationship between volume and pressure of
gas
Joseph Priestly – discovered oxygen gas
Joseph Proust - Law of definite proportions
John Dalton – Atomic Theories
Dmitri Mendeleev – First accepted periodic table of elements
Ernst Rutherford – Discovery of positively charged atomic particles – nucleus
Neil Bohr – Electrons and Radioactivity
James Chadwick – Neutron
Marie & Pierre Curie – Discovered radioactive element - Radium, Uranium,
Thorium, Polonium
J. J. Thomson – Electron
Eugene Goldstein – Proton
James Chadwick – Neutron
Joseph Proust – Law of Definite proportions

How did Chemistry start?

The earliest practical knowledge of chemistry was concerned with metallurgy,
pottery, and dyes; these crafts were developed with considerable skill, but with no
understanding of the principles involved, as early as 3500 BC in Egypt and
Mesopotamia.
Chemistry is essential for meeting our basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, health,
energy, and clean air, water, and soil. Chemical technologies enrich our quality of
life in numerous ways by providing new solutions to problems in health, materials,
and energy usage.
Life Without Chemistry:
Without chemistry our lives would be dull, dark, boring, and short. Without
chemistry people would die much younger from diseases such as bubonic plague,
since we wouldn't have antibiotics. We wouldn't have vaccines, so people would still
contract terrible illnesses such as smallpox and polio.
The Branches of Chemistry:
The areas of specialization that emerged early in the history of chemistry, such
as organic, inorganic, physical, analytical, and industrial chemistry, along
with biochemistry, remain of greatest general interest. There has been, however,
much growth in the areas of polymer, environmental, and medicinal chemistry
during the 20th century. Moreover, new specialties continue to appear, as, for
example, pesticide, forensic, and computer chemistry.
What is evolution in chemistry?
The formation of complex organic molecules (see also organic molecule) from
simpler inorganic molecules through chemical reactions in the oceans during the
early history of the Earth; the first step in the development of life on this planet.
Why chemistry is important in our daily life?
Chemistry is essential for meeting our basic needs of food, clothing, shelter,
health, energy, and clean air, water, and soil. Chemical technologies enrich our
quality of life in numerous ways by providing new solutions to problems in
health, materials, and energy usage.
The methodology of Chemistry:
Chemistry has a broad spectrum of explanatory models for chemical phenomena
that have endured and been extended over time. These now have the status of
theories, interconnected sets of explanatory devices that correlate well with
observed phenomena. As new discoveries are made, they are unified into
existing theories whenever possible. However, accepted theory is never sufficient
to predict the course of future discovery.
Experimentation is expected to become radically more efficient. This
will impact research, who is able to conduct this work and the necessary
infrastructure. Computational developments, combined with advances in
real-time and high-throughput experimentation, may radically reduce the
time required for modelling and to “get stuff out of the lab”.
Approaches to research on organic synthesis, general catalytic chemistry
and testing the physical properties of models will see changes, and
chemists are expected to become even more focused on thermodynamics.
The production of “molecules on demand” may follow, although this
development probably sits beyond our ten to twenty year time horizon.
Chemists may be able to produce models on demand for specific clients
and to develop a product without extensive testing.

Human needs & related research and development will continue to play a vital
role in the future, progress and evolution of chemistry
The future of Chemistry: The role of chemistry in these areas cannot be
underestimated
 Chemistry will help us solve many future problems, including sustainable
energy and food production, managing our environment, providing safe
drinking water and promoting human and environmental health.
 The chemical sciences will likely be increasingly required to solve
challenges
 in health, energy and climate change, water and food production.
 Chemistry might have a greater role in biochemistry and the
pharmaceutical industry,
 as well as in the maintenance and development of infrastructure.
 The world faces major challenges that demand a response from chemistry.
 There are a number of areas where there is likely to be an increased
demand for chemistry such as advances in personalized medicine,
mutational drugs, sequencing,
 vaccines to deal with global health issues and treatments linked to an
ageing
 population are important developments where chemistry will play a role.
 Chemistry is also expected to play a key role in tackling major challenges
 associated with energy and climate change, particularly in green solutions
 to generate and store energy. Carbon capture, renewables, energy storage,
 recycling (in materials and processes) and battery technology are research
 areas that will grow in importance in the future.
  In the next ten to twenty years, chemistry will have a vital role in
developing processes and products to repair, replace and protect future
equipment.
 They will be able to contribute through producing more durable and
sustainable and environment friendly materials.
 chemistry will be linked to physics, geoengineering and agri-economics.
 Chemistry can an impact on agriculture is particularly crucial because the
pressure is around nutrition, food security and an expanding population as
there is a need for a second kind of green revolution.
 “The big issue facing healthcare is the access to medicines... Affordability
becomes everything. Chemists have a role to play here. With good
synthetic routes, the access question can be solved at a price point the
world can afford. Proteins, cell-based therapies all have an important
place.
 There will be strong growth in demand for medicine for age-related
conditions, and changing demographics
 An ageing population, for example, means growth in demand for medicines
 to prevent, treat and control age-related conditions will be a key future
 focus for chemistry.
 In the future chemists may develop personalized medicine to tackle diseases
like Alzheimer’s and dementia.
 These developments may in turn impact the workforce profile of the
chemistry community itself.
 In a world of longer life expectancies, career lengths are likely to increase and
“talent” will be sought among both the young and the old.

The Scope & applications of Chemistry:

Cchemistry plays an important and useful role towards the development and
growth of a number of industries such as glass, cement, paper, textile, leather,
dye etc. We also see huge applications of chemistry in industries like paints,
pigments, petroleum, sugar, plastics, Pharmaceuticals.
Chemistry – Research and Development
For example, chemical research and development will contribute to energy efficient
LEDs, solar cells, electric vehicle batteries, water desalination, bio-diagnostics,
advanced materials for durable clothing, aerospace, defence, agriculture,
nanotechnology, additive manufacturing as well as health and medicine

Trends in Chemistry – Expert Views

The most important trend of all is the relationship of chemistry to biology. More
and more biology is taking a fundamental approach – understanding what’s
going on at a molecular level – and as it does so it gets closer and closer to
chemistry.” “The reality is that in the last century chemistry was involved in
inventing a lot of new molecules and substances… This century will be
different… [Chemistry] is going to be involved in combinations of molecules into
new substrates and structures and formulations… Key strands going forward are
going to be the bioscience strand and performance molecules and linking into
computational power. Being able to model, simulate and predict chemistry
outcomes and biotech outcomes, and material outcomes. It is a world of
multidisciplinary not discipline isolation.

https://www.britannica.com/science/chemistry/Chemistry-and-society
https://www.thoughtco.com/reasons-to-study-chemistry-609210
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/everywhere.html
https://www.thoughtco.com/pictures-of-famous-chemists-4071313
https://www.superprof.com/blog/famous-chemists-discoveries/
https://en.unesco.org/courier/yanvar-mart-2011-g/chemistry-how-it-all-started
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/chemistry/chem-c2507/navbar/chemhist.html