WHAT DOES CHEMISTRY STUDY? - CHEMISTRY - 2026

The chemistry is responsible for studying the subject in terms of composition, properties and structure at the microscopic level that is, at the level of its small- particles and their ability to transform the interact and with other bodies, which is called a chemical reaction.

It is the discipline of the natural sciences that studies the electrons, protons and neutrons of the elements, called simple particles and also the compound particles (atoms, molecules and atomic nuclei), their interaction and transformation.

Chemistry studies from its origins

Although sometimes it is not obvious, chemistry is present in every element that surrounds us, be it living beings or inanimate objects. Everything known on our planet and beyond is made up of atoms and molecules, and this is precisely what chemistry studies.

The origin of the term "chemistry" is ambiguous. In principle it is a derivation of the Arabic word "Alchemy" that comes from the Greek "quemia" and this in turn comes from an older one: "Chemi" or "Kimi", which in Egyptian means "earth" and that was the name given to Egypt in ancient times.

Other theories suggest that it may be a deformation of the Greek χημεία (“quemeia”) which means “to merge”.

Some of the most famous alchemists in history: Avicenna, Al-Razí and Nicolás Flamel

Wherever the word comes from, there is no doubt that ancient alchemy was the true origin of current chemistry. Alchemists began their practice many centuries ago in Egypt (there is evidence that the Egyptians began to experiment in 4000 BC; papyrus was invented in 3000 BC, glass in 1500 BC), in China, Greece, India; later, throughout the Roman Empire, the Islamic world, medieval Europe, and the Renaissance.

Alchemy was conceived as the search for the so-called "Philosopher's Stone", which was nothing other than the practices that included disciplines such as medicine, metallurgy, astronomy and even philosophy, with the aim of turning lead into gold, through experimentation with mercury and other substances that will function as catalysts.

Until now, and after centuries and centuries of research, the alchemists could not “create” gold, but in their frantic search they made great discoveries that led to a great leap in the field of science.

Over the centuries, chemistry has been useful for different purposes and discoveries. The most recent meaning (20th century) simplifies the way, defining Chemistry as the science that studies matter and the changes that occur in it.

The true modern "Philosopher's Stone" could be summed up in all the discoveries of nuclear transmutation of the 20th century, such as the conversion of nitrogen into oxygen through the acceleration of particles.

All branches of the natural sciences - medicine, biology, geology, physiology, etc. - are traversed by chemistry and need it to explain themselves, which is why it is considered a central and essential science.

The chemical industry represents an important economic activity worldwide. The first 50 global chemical companies invoiced in 2013 about 980 billion dollars with a profit margin of 10.3%.

History of Chemistry

The history of chemistry has its origins from practically prehistory. Egyptians and Babylonians understood chemistry as an art related to dyes to paint ceramics and metals.

The Greeks (Aristotle mainly) began to speak of the four elements that made up everything known: fire, air, earth and water. But it was thanks to Sir Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, and other promoters of the scientific method, that chemistry as such began to develop in the 17th century.

Important milestones in the advancement of chemistry can be seen in the 18th century with Lavoisier and his principle of conservation of mass; in the 19th century the periodic table was created and John Dalton raised his atomic theory that proposes that all substances are composed of indivisible atoms and with differences between them (atomic weights).

In 1897 JJ Thompson discovered the electron and shortly after, the Curie couple investigated radioactivity.

In our time, chemistry has played an important role in the field of technology. For example, in 2014 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Stefan W. Well, Eric Betzig, and William E. Moerner for the development of high-resolution fluorescence microscopy.

Sub-disciplines of Chemistry

Chemistry in general is divided into two large groups that are organic and inorganic chemistry.

The first, as its name indicates, studies the composition of organic elements based on carbon chains; the second deals with compounds that do not contain carbon, such as metals, acids and other compounds, at the level of their magnetic, electrical and optical properties.

If you want to know more about this topic, you may be interested in the differences between organic and inorganic elements.

There are also biochemistry (chemistry of living beings) and physical chemistry that studies the relationship between physical principles such as energy, thermodynamics, etc., and the chemical processes of systems.

As the field of research has expanded, more specific areas of study have appeared, such as industrial chemistry, electrochemistry, analytical chemistry, petrochemistry, quantum chemistry, neurochemistry, nuclear chemistry and many more.

The Periodic Table

The Periodic Table of elements is nothing more than the grouping of all the chemical elements that are known to date with their respective atomic weight and other abbreviated data.

The English chemist William Prout proposed in the early 1800s to order all chemical elements according to their atomic weight, since it was a known fact that they all had different weights and that those weights were also exact multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen.

Subsequently, JAR Newlands came up with a fairly basic table that later became the modern periodic table in 1860, thanks to scientists Julius Lothar Meyer and Dmitri Mendeleev.

At the end of the 19th century the noble gases were discovered, adding them to the table as it is known today, composed of 118 elements in total.

References

1. AH Johnstone (1997). Chemistry teaching… science or alchemy? Journal of Chemical Education. Recovered from search.proquest.com.
2. Eric R. Scerri (2007). The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance. Oxford University Press. NewYork, USA.
3. Alexander H. Tullo (2014). “C & EN's Global Top 50 Chemical Firms fos 2014. Chemical & Engineering News. American Chemical Society. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org.