The History of Chemistry

Prerequisites (recommended): high school chemistry

What is oxidation? Is a pH of 9 basic or acidic? How many sodium ions are in a cubical sample of 3000 water molecules if sea water contains 35 g of NaCl per liter?

Whether you loved or hated high school/college chemistry, these are NOT the questions we'll be answering. Instead, we'll take a look at how the field of chemistry came to be, starting first with chemistry's ancestor: alchemy. (Did you know that Nicholas Flamel was in fact, a real person, and that for hundreds of years the field was devoted to finding the philosopher's stone?) We'll then turn to how "classical chemical revolution" was driven in part by the fermentation of beer, before learning about how quantum mechanics further transformed the field to create "quantum chemistry." In continuing with the themes from last year's "A Brief History of Science" class, we will be looking not only at the famous chemists such as Lavoisier, Boyle, and Pauling but at the miners, healers, and other ordinary people who had important roles in understanding how matter comes to matter. Finally, we will take a look at the development of the chemical industry and how the production of fertilizer, plastics, rubber, and polymers such as polystyrene have changed, benefitted, or harmed our society and planet.