Overview of Major Fields in Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, energy, and their interactions with one another. It encompasses various branches, each dealing with specific aspects of chemical phenomena. Here's an overview of some major fields within this vast subject area:

Organic Chemistry

Organic chemistry deals primarily with carbon compounds, which are found in living organisms. Carbon can bond to itself and other elements like nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, bromine, iodine, metals, and nonmetal radicals. These bonds form molecules with unique properties and reaction mechanisms that make up life processes.

In organic synthesis, chemists build complex molecules using simpler ones through a series of reactions called functional group transformations. This process allows them to create new chemical structures by connecting smaller building blocks together under controlled conditions.

Inorganic Chemistry

This branch studies everything except carbon compounds. It includes minerals, rocks, gases emitted from volcanoes, atmospheric pollutants such as smog, industrial products used in everyday life, cures for diseases, and even our own bodies.

Inorganic chemistry uses several types of periodic table classifications to help organize its information into manageable categories. For example, it separates elements according to whether they have only one valence electron, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, thirty-five, forty-nine, sixty-three, seventy-one, seventy-nine, ninety, ninety-one, ninety-four, ninety-six, ninety-eight, or more than twenty-two valence electrons.

Biochemistry

Biochemistry focuses on how chemicals interact within living things, including cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and the entire body. Its study spans a wide range of subjects including physiology, nutrition, immunology, exercise, environmental health issues, disease states, drug discovery, and molecular genetics. Some areas of focus include cellular respiration, photosynthesis, the cell cycle, protein synthesis, gene expression, DNA replication, transcription factors, signal transduction pathways, and hormonal regulation of growth and development.

Physical Chemistry

Physical chemistry explores the relationships between macroscopic materials and physics phenomena, looking particularly at thermodynamics, kinetics, equilibrium, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and spectroscopy. It applies tools of analysis from both disciplines to solve problems like predicting phase transitions, reaction rates, and energy changes during chemical reactions, as well as determining the nature of intermolecular attractions among species involved in reactions.

These four broad areas represent just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to chemistry. Each has countless fascinating specialties waiting to be explored further by budding scientists!