Chemistry: The Central Science

• Chemistry: the study of the properties of matter and its structure.

• People may be studying chemistry for different reasons.

• Most everything you do and encounter during your day involves chemistry.

  • Making coffee, cooking eggs, and toasting bread involve chemistry.

  • The products you use—like soap and shampoo, the fabrics you wear, the electronics that keep you connected to your world—all of these and more involve chemical substances and processes.

  • Materials used in objects of arts, techniques applied for art conservation and authentication, methods used by archaeologists to study archaeological artifacts.

• Chemistry is sometimes referred to as “the central science” because it interconnects with a vast array of other STEM disciplines.

• Chemistry and its language play important roles in biology, medicine, materials science, forensics, environmental science, and many other scientific fields.

History of Chemistry

• Due to the amount of time chemistry takes up on the timeline, the science is split into four general chronological categories.

  • The four categories are:

    • Prehistoric times - beginning of the Christian era (black magic)

    • Beginning of the Christian era - end of 17th century (alchemy)

    • End of 17th century - mid 19th century (traditional chemistry)

    • Mid 19th century - present (modern chemistry)

• Throughout human history, people have tried to convert matter into more useful forms.

  • In the Stone Age, people chipped pieces of flint into useful tools and carved wood into statues and toys.

  • These endeavors involved changing the shape of a substance without changing the substance itself.

• As our knowledge increased, humans began to change the composition of the substances as well—clay was converted into pottery, hides were cured to make garments, copper ores were transformed into copper tools and weapons, and grain was made into bread.

• Humans began to practice chemistry when they learned to control fire and use it to cook, make pottery, and smelt metals.  Subsequently, they began to separate and use specific components of matter.

• A variety of drugs such as aloe, myrrh, and opium were isolated from plants.

• Dyes, such as indigo and Tyrian purple, were extracted from plant and animal matter.

• Metals were combined to form alloys—for example, copper and tin were mixed together to make bronze—and more elaborate smelting techniques produced iron.

• Alkalis were extracted from ashes, and soaps were prepared by combining these alkalis with fats.

• Alcohol was produced by fermentation and purified by distillation.

• Attempts to understand the behavior of matter extend back for more than 2500 years.

• As early as the sixth century BC, Greek philosophers discussed a system in which water was the basis of all things.

• An amalgamation of chemical technologies and philosophical speculations was spread from Egypt, China, and the eastern Mediterranean by alchemists, who endeavored to transform “base metals” such as lead into “noble metals” like gold, and to create elixirs to cure disease and extend life.