Chemical sciences ultimate goals

In this report, chemical imaging is defined as the spatial and temporal characterization of the molecular composition, structure, and dynamics of any given sample—with the ultimate goal being able to both understand and control complex chemical processes. As illustrated by the case studies in Chapter 2, this ability to image or visualize chemical events in space and time is essential to the future development of many fields of science. 

An ultimate goal for the science of chemical kinetics is to relate specific rate constants to molecular properties. In principle such a relation is... 

One of the most attractive aspects of the science of chemistry is the way it all fits together. Typically, students first learn the basics of atomic and molecular structure add some knowledge of thermodynamics, kinetics, and equilibrium and then quickly start to apply these ideas to more advanced topics. For example, you may have already studied Chapters 2 through 6 of this book and seen how the ideas that you worked so hard to master in your previous chemistry experiences provide the basis for the study of coordination compounds. Or, perhaps you have read Chapters 7 and 8 on the structures and energetics of solid-state chemistry. Alternatively, you may have skipped directly from Chapter 1 to this point to start a study of the chemistry of the periodic table and the representative elements. In any case, no matter in what order you have started to make your way through the discipline we call chemistry, the ultimate goal is the development of an interconnected network of ideas that you can use to rationalize and predict a variety of chemical behavior. Nowhere is such a network more essential than in a study of what has become known as descriptive chemistry, the properties, structures, reactions, and applications of the elements and their most important compounds. 

The project s deliverable was a living model not the ultimately right one—possibly a utopian goal for the present state of chemical kinetics science—but the best current, i.e., the best consensus possible with the present state of knowledge and available quantity and quality of data at a given time. This marks a fundamental shift in the general outlook on a (chemical kinetics) model. 

---