What Chemists Do

Chemistry is what chemists do. The field of chemistry encompasses a vast range of activities. Because there is so much demand for the skills of chemists in industry, government, and education, the American Chemical Society is the largest professional scientific organization devoted to a single science, with sister organizations in other countries. Chemists literally are everywhere, and many of them work in laboratories. Chemists may be researchers, teachers, consultants, sales representatives, or technicians. Chemists may hold managerial or administrative positions. 

Alchemy was one of humankind s earliest scientific endeavors. Its origins predate any historical records. 

Chemistry can be defined as the study of the composition, structure, and properties of material substances and the changes associated with these substances. 

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Overall, I thought this lab was a lot of fun and provided insight to what chemists do in real labs. I think it is important for the class to participate in current studies of organic chemistry. I thought that this was one of the best labs of the semester. ... 

Water, as you know, consists of 2 parts of hydrogen to 1 part of oxygen. You could write it Hydrogen 2—Oxygen 1. That s pretty much what chemists do — except that they abbreviate the names to initials, use small numbers, and don t bother about the number 1. The formula becomes H 0-... 

Chemistry is what chemists do, and the way that chemists define their science in relation to other sciences is in the end a piece of territorial assertion, a reflection of the norms accepted within the chemical community. It is more a sociological and cultural phenomenon than a reflection of boundaries corresponding to fundamental divisions in nature. Now, in the twenty-first century,... 

Stereochemical analysis is a formal descripton of the stereochemical aspects of molecules and their reaction. In many ways it is simply a formalisation of what chemists do anyway and is not dissimilar to retrosynthetic analysis. But clarity is vital and clarity can be achieved only by using the stereochemical words we have just met. 

Breslow, Ronald, Chemistry Today and Tomorrow The Central, Useful, and Creative Science. Washington, D.C. and Sudbury, MA American Chemical Society and Jones and Bartlett, 1997. Presentation of what chemistry is, what chemists do, and how the field and its practitioners affect the society. 

In the exerdses for Chapter 1 of this text, you were asked to give your ovm definition of what chemistry represents. After having completed a few more chapters in this book, has your definition changed Do you have a better appredation for what chemists do Explain. 

Graphics display methods were available only to the most richly funded researchers in 1973, but are now commonplace, thanks to the extraordinary rate of developments in the professional microcomputer workstation. It is hard to think of another factor which has so strongly influenced what chemists do in relation to storage, display and manipulation of chemical structures than this development, as Bill Town will be telling us. This appears still to continue at undiminished rates, soon to be further enhanced by the advent of yet more powerful workstations, and communications networks to support them. 

We begin with a brief description of what chemistry is, what chemists do, and why it is useful to learn chemistry. 

This first chapter provides an overview of what chemistry is about and what chemists do. The preceding What s Ahead list gives an overview of the chapter organization and of some of the ideas we will consider. As you study, keep in mind that the chemical facts and concepts you are asked to learn are not ends in themselves they are tools to help you better understand the world around you. 

Once we drop the obscure idea of scientific realism and look instead at what chemists do, philosophical realism turns out to be institutionalized in all its three traditional forms metaphysical, conceptual, and epistemological. 

This first chapter provides an overview of what chemistry is about and what chemists do. The What s Ahead list gives an overview of the chapter organization and of some of the ideas we will consider. 

Whether you re taking a chemistry course or you re curious about what chemists do, this fun and easy guide will get you up to speed in matter and energy, elements and atoms, acids and gases, and much more. You ll understand the basic concepts and discover how chemistry affects our day-to-day lives — from the home to the environment. 

Professor Whitesides did not hide his conviction that there ought to be an element of utility, or potential utility, in what chemists do. He finds it amusing that apparently as a result of this, his colleagues at Harvard will occasionally call him a chemical engineer, a label he does not mind. 

Compared to the opinions described by Professor Whitesides, Professor Lehn placed less emphasis on the utilitarian aspects of what chemists do and spoke in favor of basic science. Why not do research and explore things just because they are beautiful, or because it is enjoyable to do so, as long as we can convince others that they are worth doing and e q)loring After all, they may ultimately be "useful", some perhaps in a practical sense, and others perhiq)s only because they contribute to nuuikind s understanding of the universe. 

A broader and more comprehensive view of the aim of chemistry education is provided by several theoretical studies aimed at defining chemical literacy. In a study conducted in the UK, Holman (2002) suggested three domains toward a working definition of chemical literacy Key chemical ideas, what chemists do, and chemical contexts. Holman called for curricula design addressing these three domains. 

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