THE AGE OF MODERN CHEMISTRY

It is both difficult to determine an exact date for the beginning of modem chemistry and impracticable to bestow the designation of father of chemistry on any one individual. Some historians date the end of alchemy and the beginning of modem chemistry to the early seventeenth century. Over the years many men and women of different races and from many countries have contributed to our current knowledge and understanding of chemistry. A few examples follow. 

In 1661 Robert Boyle (1627-1691), an early chemist from Great Britain, published a book tided The Skeptical Chymist, which was the beginning of the end of alchemy. His book ruled the perceptions and behavior of early scientists for almost 100 years. Two of his contributions were the use of experimental procedures to determine properties of the chemical elements 

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The first sections of this reference book set the stage for the presentation of the elements. First is the section How to Use This Book followed by a short introduction. Next is A Short History of Chemistry, the narrative of which progresses from prehistoric times to the Age of Alchemy and then to the Age of Modern Chemistry. Next is the section titled Atomic Structure, which traces the history of our knowledge of the structure of the atom some theoretical models, including quantum mechanics the discovery of subatomic (nuclear) particles... 

Alchemy was developed in Europe in the medieval age and it founded the origin of modern chemistry [1]. The brilliantly shining color and the almost perfect chemical inertness of gold has attracted men and women as a S5m-bol of eternal power and beauty. It is therefore reasonable that so many people dreamed to produce gold artificially. Even Newton was deeply involved in the chemical S5m-thesis of gold [2]. 

The contributions of modern chemistry, including the availability of separated isotopes, the extension of the range of mass spectrometers, and the developments of new chemical methods, which make possible the determination of microgram quantities, have extended the range of application of radioactive age measurements. This extension has been either... 

An historical aside may clarify the issues. In the medical tradition that went from the ancients (Hippocrates and Galen) through the Middle Ages until the Enlightenment, physicians basically thought about disease in terms of mechanism. The conventional theory of humors was a crude attempt to describe illness in terms of imbalances in body composition, before the invention of modern chemistry and biochemistry. 

In the Middle Ages, many early chemists tried to change, or transmute, ordinary metals into gold. Although they made many discoveries that contributed to the development of modern chemistry, their attempts to transmute metals were doomed from the start. These early chemists did not realize that a transmutation, whereby one element changes into another, is a nuclear reaction. It changes the nucleus of an atom and therefore cannot be achieved by ordinary chemical means. 

Hoffmann, R. 1998. Qualitative Thinking in the Age of Modern Computational Chemistry—Or What Lionel Salem Knows. Journal of Molecular Structure 424 1-6. 

The development of the metric system, which served as the basis of the International System of Units (Le Systeme International d Unites known as SI), occurred during the French Revolution in the mid-eighteenth century. This coincided with the beginning of the age of modern science, especially chemistry and physics, as the value of physical measurements in the conduct of those pursuits became apparent. As scientific activities became more precise and founded on sound theory, the common nature of science demanded an equally consistent system of units and measurements. The units in the SI have been defined by international accord to provide consistency in all fields of endeavor. The basic units are defined for only seven fundamental properties of matter. All other consistent units are derived as functions of these seven fundamental units. 

R. Hoffmann, Qualitative thinking in the age of modern computational chemistry—or what Lionel Salem knows, J. Mol. Struct. (Theochem.) 424 (1998) 1-6. 

While it is certainly true that many French chemists were reluctant to accept the atomic theory, the explanation that this was due to the influence of Comte, despite its superficial plausibility, remains unconvincing on several accounts. As one of us has argued on several occasions, there are a number of problems with the more indirect spirit of the age, or Zeitgeist argument. First, there is the question of why such an influence would affect only chemists, and not physicists or other scientists. More significantly, this argument depends on a double misunderstanding first, a misinterpretation of the tradition of French positivism, and second, a misrepresentation of the construction of modern chemistry across the nineteenth century. 

We five in the age of quality. Quality is measured, analyzed, and discussed. The simplest product and the most trivial service come from quality-assured organizations. Conspicuously embracing quality is the standard of the age. Even university faculty are now subject to quality audits of their teaching. Some of these new-found enthusiasms may be more appropriate than others, but I have no doubt that proper attention to quality is vital for analytical chemistry. Analytical measurements affect every facet of our modern, first-world fives. Health, food, forensics, and general trade require measurements that often involve chemical analysis, which must be accurately conducted for informed decisions to be made. A sign of improvement in developing countries is often a nation s ability to measure important aspects of the lives of its citizens, such as cleanliness of water and food. 

The editors herewith present the twenty-first volume in this serial publication. To celebrate our coming of age, we are proud to offer a review of the contributions of Emil Fischer to carbohydrate chemistry, by one of his students, Professor Karl Freudenberg. In translation, some of the fine expression and style of the original German may have been lost, yet the review is nevertheless an outstanding evaluation of Fischer s contributions to the fundamentals of modern carbohydrate chemistry. 

The fundamental idea of modern chemistry is that matter is made up of atoms of various sorts, which can be combined and rearranged to produce different, and often novel, materials. The person responsible for this master-concept of our age (Greenaway, p. 227) was John Dalton. He applied Newton s idea of small, indivisible atoms to the study of gases in the atmosphere and used it to advance a quantitative explanation of chemical composition. If French chemist Antoine Lavoisier started the chemical revolution, then it was Dalton who put it on a firm foundation. His contemporary, the Swedish chemist Jons J. Berzelius, said If one takes away from Dalton everything but the atomic idea, that will make his name immortal. ... 

In the modern age of medicinal chemistry, QSAR modeling remains one of the most important instruments of computer-aided drug design. Skillful application of various methodologies discussed in this chapter will afford validated QSAR models, which should continue to enrich and facilitate the experimental process of drug discovery and development. 

With the advent of synthetic methods to produce more advanced model systems (cluster- or nanoparticle-based systems either in the gas phase or on planar surfaces), we come to the modern age of surface chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis. Castleman and coworkers demonstrate the large influence that charge, size, and composition of metal oxide clusters generated in the gas phase can have on the mechanism of a catalytic reaction. Rupprechter (Chap. 15) reports on the stmctural and catalytic properties of planar noble metal nanocrystals on thin oxide support films in vacuum and under high-pressure conditions. The theme of model systems of nanoparticles supported on planar metal oxide substrates is continued with a chapter on the formation of planar catalyst based on size-selected cluster deposition methods. In a second contribution from Rupprecther (Chap. 17), the complexities of surface chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis on metal oxide films and nanostructures, where the extension of the bulk structure to the surface often does not occur and the surface chemistry is often dominated by surface defects, are discussed. 

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