What would life would be like if nobody had ever studied
chemistry? It’s easy to grumble about the homework,
but it’s impossible to overestimate chemistry’s
importance in our daily lives.
What Would Your início Be Like?
The International o espaço Station with ATV-2 and
Endeavour (Image ESA and NASA)
Look around your início and count the number of things
around you that have come out of chemistry
breakthroughs and inventions. Without chemistry we
wouldn’t have light bulbs, mobile phones, facebook or
Twitter. Much of the comida we eat and clothes we wear
involve chemists and chemistry too.
If we had never studied chemistry we wouldn’t have
liquid oxygen. This was developed in the 1800s and is
now probably best-known for its role as rocket fuel.
Without rockets the o espaço race wouldn’t have happened,
or all the everyday things that we got from programmes
related to it – from satellite TV to the internet.
We Wouldn’t Have Modern Medicine
Without chemistry, disease and illness would be running
riot. por the 17th century – when modern chemistry
began to take off – the average life expectancy was just
35. Chemical advancements changed all that, providing
the basis for medicine to tackle many medieval
afflictions such as bubonic plague, and vaccinations
fought measles, small pox, mumps, polio and tetanus.
Without chemistry, penicillin would never have existed,
and minor cuts and grazes and low-grade viruses would
often progress to serious illness and fatal septicaemia
(blood poisoning). We wouldn’t have today’s local and
general anaesthetics either – imagine the pain of
surgery or dental work without them.
And where would we be without salicylic acid? That’s
the chemical name for aspirin, the cheap wonder-drug
which has given us relief from headaches and fever as
well as helping to prevent strokes and coração attacks.
Above: Image of a farmer at the dentist por Johann Liss
Chemistry and Food
In the world before modern chemistry, humans had very
limited means of preserving food. Clean drinking water
would be hard to come por and deadly waterborne
diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid were
commonplace.
Chemistry has helped us to understand the composition
of comida – what’s good or bad for us, how to prolong the
shelf-life of many common foodstuffs, and how to
nourish our bodies with comida to protect ourselves from
ailments such as rickets, osteoporosis and scurvy.
It has enabled us to make up for the nutrients we miss
out on, with important vitamins and minerals in capsule
form, and fortified breakfast cereals.
Above: Electron microscope image of Vibrio Cholera
bacteria
(Image: Wikipedia)
A Central Role
Chemistry has been called ‘the central science’ because
of its role and influence on all of the sciences. It
involves the study of the basic units of matter, and
without that knowledge other sciences such as physics
and biology would not have been particularly
successful.
Chemistry plays a role in every aspect of our lives. It
has allowed other sciences to blossom and has
expanded our collective knowledge. We understand how
the tiniest components of the human body work and can
predict the composition of planets millions of miles
away.
From o espaço travel to milk, chemistry has played a
massive part in improving our lives. A world without
chemistry would be one big headache – without the
salicylic acid!
Check out this video about A dia Without Chemistry ,
produced por the American Chemical Society for the
International ano of Chemistry.
chemistry? It’s easy to grumble about the homework,
but it’s impossible to overestimate chemistry’s
importance in our daily lives.
What Would Your início Be Like?
The International o espaço Station with ATV-2 and
Endeavour (Image ESA and NASA)
Look around your início and count the number of things
around you that have come out of chemistry
breakthroughs and inventions. Without chemistry we
wouldn’t have light bulbs, mobile phones, facebook or
Twitter. Much of the comida we eat and clothes we wear
involve chemists and chemistry too.
If we had never studied chemistry we wouldn’t have
liquid oxygen. This was developed in the 1800s and is
now probably best-known for its role as rocket fuel.
Without rockets the o espaço race wouldn’t have happened,
or all the everyday things that we got from programmes
related to it – from satellite TV to the internet.
We Wouldn’t Have Modern Medicine
Without chemistry, disease and illness would be running
riot. por the 17th century – when modern chemistry
began to take off – the average life expectancy was just
35. Chemical advancements changed all that, providing
the basis for medicine to tackle many medieval
afflictions such as bubonic plague, and vaccinations
fought measles, small pox, mumps, polio and tetanus.
Without chemistry, penicillin would never have existed,
and minor cuts and grazes and low-grade viruses would
often progress to serious illness and fatal septicaemia
(blood poisoning). We wouldn’t have today’s local and
general anaesthetics either – imagine the pain of
surgery or dental work without them.
And where would we be without salicylic acid? That’s
the chemical name for aspirin, the cheap wonder-drug
which has given us relief from headaches and fever as
well as helping to prevent strokes and coração attacks.
Above: Image of a farmer at the dentist por Johann Liss
Chemistry and Food
In the world before modern chemistry, humans had very
limited means of preserving food. Clean drinking water
would be hard to come por and deadly waterborne
diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid were
commonplace.
Chemistry has helped us to understand the composition
of comida – what’s good or bad for us, how to prolong the
shelf-life of many common foodstuffs, and how to
nourish our bodies with comida to protect ourselves from
ailments such as rickets, osteoporosis and scurvy.
It has enabled us to make up for the nutrients we miss
out on, with important vitamins and minerals in capsule
form, and fortified breakfast cereals.
Above: Electron microscope image of Vibrio Cholera
bacteria
(Image: Wikipedia)
A Central Role
Chemistry has been called ‘the central science’ because
of its role and influence on all of the sciences. It
involves the study of the basic units of matter, and
without that knowledge other sciences such as physics
and biology would not have been particularly
successful.
Chemistry plays a role in every aspect of our lives. It
has allowed other sciences to blossom and has
expanded our collective knowledge. We understand how
the tiniest components of the human body work and can
predict the composition of planets millions of miles
away.
From o espaço travel to milk, chemistry has played a
massive part in improving our lives. A world without
chemistry would be one big headache – without the
salicylic acid!
Check out this video about A dia Without Chemistry ,
produced por the American Chemical Society for the
International ano of Chemistry.