Chapter 1
So what is chemistry? The better question is
what isn't chemistry?
I've got a definition...in fact I've got lots of
definitions...
Chemistry is the study of matter
Chemistry deals with the properties of
materials and the changes these materials undergo.
Chemistry is a physical science that
deals with the composition, structure and properties of
substances and the reactions they undergo. As a science,
chemistry involves the intuitive and creative application
of knowledge gained from experiment observation and
theoretical descriptions.
Anything that bites or scratches is
biology
Anything that stinks or pops is chemistry
Anything that does not work is physics
More than you wanted to know?
According to the first definition chemistry is
the study of matter. What's matter? Matter is ANYTHING the
occupies space and has mass. Pretty much covers it, matter is
EVERYTHING, except stuff like light and heat, but other than
those everything else falls into the definition of matter. So I
repeat, what isn't chemistry?! From the clothes we wear to the
food we eat, the books we read, the materials that are used to
make the portable DVD player we watched in the seat in front of
us on our return flight from Seattle. All this and more are a
result of chemists studying the properties of materials and the
changes materials undergo. By studying and experimenting on the
composition, structure and properties of substances and on the
reactions substance undergo chemists are able to learn about
matter through observation and theoretical descriptions.
So if you want to know what chemistry is, its
nearly everything. Does not help much does it. I've been studying
chemistry for over thirty years and I certainly do not know it
all. So what about you? Well we'll try to do the best we can
during htis semester. We'll try to learn some chemistry, have
some fun (a four letter word), and see if it is possible to leave
the class with some appreciation of the importance of chemistry.
Is everything about chemistry neat and fun? No!
There are very interesting things about chemistry but there are
also some terrible things, terrible substances, dangerous and
hazardous! But there are also fantastic things about chemistry.
We'll try to talk about both sides.
What kinds of chemistry is going on at OSU?
Lots, but lets restrict ourselves to chemistry in the chemistry
department.
One of the department's faculty is
interested in the application of metallo-organics and
inorganic materials to do a variety of things; extracting
minerals and recycling waste materials, pollution
prevention, artificial bone, medical detectors
andtherapeutic agents for cancer.
Another faculty member is also
interested in developing new agent to treat a variety of
cancers and develop antiarrhythmic agents to treat
cardovascular disorders.
A faculty member is synthesizing
compounds with functional groups which have
pharmaceutically value.
A faculty is a world authority on ice.
His research has aided atmospheric scientist,
interstellar astrophysicists, investigators of comets and
cryobiologists to understand ice and its properties under
extreme conditions.
A faculty member is an authority on a
particular instrumental technique which can be applied to
samples to help determine the amounts of biological
substances, and/or environmental pollutants or toxicants.
One of our new faculty is interested in
nanoparticles. She is interested in their application in
catalysis, environmental chemistry and biotechnology.
So those are just a few of our faculty and what
they are doing. WOW! Now I need to be honest and tell you that
these are some of the goals of their research. For many of these
faculty their research is very basic. That is they are studying
the properties of substances and the transformations they
undergo. And by doing this with particular kinds of compounds
they hope to gain some information through experimental
observation that will eventually lead to their final goal. Most
of the chemists at OSU are working on different problems, and
collaborate with other chemists around the world to help solve
pieces of a very large puzzle which ultimately will benefit
humankind. But in their search they are also likely to find
surprises, good and bad, and chemists are trained to look for the
unusual and to recognize it when it happens. Because some of the
greatest advances have ocurred as a result of an accident, or one
unique indivdual looking at a large amount of information in a
particular way, different from their colleagues.
So how do chemists...scientists...go about the
process of research? They use something called the scientific
method. This is systematic method for gathering experimental
data, testing the data and arriving at conclusions based on the
experimental data. Experiments, facts, data, laws, hypotheses,
and theories are all important in the scientific method. Your
textbook discusses all of these on pages 8 and 9.
So chemists (scientists) perform experiments and
collect data. Scientists repeat experiments to see that the
observations they make and the data they collect are
reproducible. It is interesting...for scientists when they are
exploring something unknown, like investigating a new compound or
making a new compound or finding a new procedure for making
synthezing a compound, they get a rush. It is very difficult to
explain. It happened to me a few times, but the first I can still
remember. I was a graduate student and I was investigating the
structure of a compound that someone else had made and I'd spent
several months determining the arrangement of the atoms in the
this compound. And back in those days (1973/74) we had computers,
but they did not do as much as computers today can do. So much of
the work had to be done by hand. I had collect a large quantity
of data and had used the computer to generate organize the data
and as I created a 3-dimensional model I found that the
arrangement of the atoms was unusual. As I put together the
structure I had this overwhelming feeling of excitement as I
built a model of a previously unknown arrangement of atoms and I
knew this and no one else in the world knew this fact! I can only
descibe it as a major rush!
Some might ask the question well Gelder how do
you know that the arrangement was right? How did I know if I had
the correct answer? This is another interesting issue for
scientists. When they do research they are finding new
information, making observations, whatever. No one knows the
RIGHT answer. The only way a scientist knows if the answer is
correct, is that the observations are reproducible. Scientist do
not look for the right answer they simply perform experiments,
repeatedly and based on the reproducibility of the observations
draw conclusions and formulate hypotheses. Once the hypotheses
are made, a scientist can design additional experiments to
investigate further. The investigation may take the scientist in
a slightly different direction, or it may reinforce the
scientists understanding of the data.
After studying are large collection of
observations, making and investigating hypotheses, a scientist
may formulate a theory to explain the fundamental basis for all
of the observations. A theory allows the scientist to develop a
model which explains the data. A theory is only as good as the
data. When new data is obtained, verified and tested and found to
sugggest a new, or modified theory, than the scientific
community...the researchers most knowledgeable about the theory
with discuss the theory and how it needs to modified, or trashed
to accommodate the new data/observations.
All pretty far out stuff!