You might think of chemistry only in the context of lab tests, food additives, or dangerous substances, but the field of chemistry encompasses everything around us.

According to the American Chemical Society (ACS), a nonprofit scientific organization chartered by the U.S. Congress to develop it, “Everything you hear, see, smell, taste, and touch also contains chemicals (matter).” “Hearing, seeing, tasting, and touching all involve a complex series of interactions in your body.”

So, even if you're not a chemist, you're doing chemical work or something that involves it, in almost everything you do. In everyday life, you do it when you cook, when you use detergent to wipe the counter, when you take medicine, or when you dilute concentrated juice so that the taste is not so strong.

According to the ACS, chemistry is the study of matter, which is defined as anything that has mass and occupies space, and the changes that matter can undergo when exposed to different environments and conditions.

Chemistry seeks to understand not only the properties of a substance, such as the mass or composition of a chemical element, but also how and why a substance undergoes certain changes – whether something turns due to its union with another substance, freezes because it has been left for two weeks in the freezer, or changes colors due to exposure to sunlight.

Chemistry basics

The reason it touches everything we do is that almost everything in existence can be broken down into chemical building blocks.

The building blocks of chemistry are the chemical elements, which are substances made up of a single atom. Each chemical is unique, made up of a certain number of protons, neutrons, and electrons, and is identified by a chemical name and symbol, such as the “C” for carbon. The elements that scientists have discovered so far are listed in the periodic table of the elements and include elements found in nature such as carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, as well as man-made elements, such as Lawrencium.

Chemical elements can bond together to form chemical compounds, which are substances made of multiple elements, such as carbon dioxide (which consists of one carbon atom attached to two oxygen atoms), or multiple atoms of one element, such as oxygen gas (which consists of two atoms) of oxygen). connected). These chemical compounds can then combine with other compounds or elements to form countless other substances and substances.

Chemistry as a physical science

It is usually considered a physical science, as defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica because the study of chemistry does not involve living organisms. Most materials used in research and development, such as manufacturing new products and materials for customers, fall under this discipline.

But the distinction as a physical science gets a bit blurry in the case of biochemistry, which explores the chemistry of living things, according to the Biochemical Society. The chemicals and chemical processes that biochemists have studied are not technically “living,” but understanding them is important to understanding how life works.

The five main branches of chemistry

Traditionally, chemistry is divided into five main branches, according to the online textbook published by LibreText. There are also more specialized areas, such as food, environmental, and nuclear chemistry, but this section focuses on the five subdisciplines of chemistry.

Analytical chemistry involves the analysis of chemicals and includes qualitative methods such as looking at color changes, as well as quantitative methods such as examining the exact wavelength of light that the chemical absorbs to lead to a color change.

These methods enable scientists to characterize many different properties of chemicals, and they can benefit society in many ways. For example, analytical chemistry helps food companies make tastier frozen dinners by discovering how chemicals in food change when they are frozen over time. Analytical chemistry is also used to monitor the health of the environment by measuring chemicals in water or soil, for example.

Biochemistry, as mentioned above, uses chemical techniques to understand how biological systems function at the chemical level. Thanks to biochemistry, researchers have been able to map the human genome, understand what different proteins do in the body, and develop treatments for many diseases.

Inorganic chemistry is the study of compounds found in non-organic or non-living things such as minerals. Traditionally, inorganic studies compounds that do not contain carbon (which is covered by organic), but this definition is not entirely accurate, according to the American Chemical Society.

Some compounds studied as inorganic, such as “organometallic compounds,” contain metals, which are minerals bonded to carbon—the main element studied in organic chemistry. As such, compounds such as these are part of both fields.

Inorganic chemistry is used to produce a variety of products, including paints, fertilizers, and sunscreens.

Organic chemistry deals with chemical compounds that contain carbon, an element considered essential for life. Organic chemists study the composition, structure, properties, and interactions of these compounds, which together with carbon contain elements other than carbon such as hydrogen, sulfur, and silicon. Organic chemistry is used in many applications, as described in the ACS, such as biotechnology, the petroleum industry, pharmaceuticals, and plastics.

Physical chemistry uses concepts from physics to understand how chemistry works. For example, knowing how atoms move and interact with each other, or why some liquids, including water, turn into steam at high temperatures. Physical chemists attempt to understand these phenomena on a very small scale – at the level of atoms and molecules – to conclude how chemical reactions work and what gives particular materials their unique properties.

This type of research helps inform other branches of chemistry and is important for product development, according to the ACS. For example, physical chemists might study how certain materials, such as plastics, react with chemicals they are designed to come into contact with.

What do chemists do?

Chemists work in a variety of fields, including research and development, quality control, manufacturing, environmental protection, consulting, and law. They can work at universities, for the government, or in private industry, according to the ACS.

Here are some examples of what chemists do:

research and development

In academia, chemists who conduct research aim to increase knowledge about a particular topic, and they may not necessarily have a particular application in mind. However, its results can still be applied to related products and applications.

In industry, research, and development chemists use scientific knowledge to develop or improve a particular product or process. For example, food chemists improve the quality, safety, storage, and taste of food; Pharmaceutical chemists develop and analyze the quality of drugs and other medicinal formulations; and Agrochemists develop fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides needed for large-scale crop production.

Sometimes research and development may not involve improving the product itself, but rather the manufacturing process involved in making that product. Chemical and process engineers devise new ways to make manufacturing their products easier and more cost-effective, such as increasing the speed and/or yield of a product for a given budget.

environment protection

Environmental chemists study how chemicals interact with the natural environment, and describe the chemicals and chemical reactions found in natural processes in soil, water, and air. For example, scientists can collect soil, water, or air from an important location and analyze it in a laboratory to determine whether human activities may pollute, pollute, or otherwise affect the environment. Some environmental chemists can also help treat or remove pollutants from the soil, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Scientists with a background in environmental chemistry can also act as consultants to various organizations, such as chemical companies or consulting firms, guiding how to complete practices and procedures according to environmental regulations.

Law

Chemists can use their academic background to advise or advocate for scientific issues. For example, chemists may work in the field of intellectual property, where they can apply their scientific background to copyright issues in science, or in environmental law, where they may represent special interest groups and file for approval from regulating agencies before certain activities occur.

Chemists can also perform analyses that help law enforcement. Forensic chemists capture and analyze the physical evidence left behind at a crime scene to help determine the identities of the people involved, as well as to answer other vital questions regarding how and why the crime was carried out. Forensic chemists use a wide variety of analysis methods, such as chromatography and spectrometry, which help identify and quantify chemicals.