by: Olyn Desabelle
A single definition cannot concisely and completely contain the core concepts and complexities of chemistry. It is not simply the science that specifically studies stuff that somehow react through sorcery. It is an art – erudition through education, experience, and examination.
What make us up – the atoms, cells, tissues, and organs that make us who we are, are byproducts of chemistry. The basic things we do – eating, moving, and even sleeping are governed by chemistry. When we eat, the enzymes in our body digest the food through various reactions. When we move, there are proteins that are technically responsible for our actions. Even when we sleep, our body clock runs not on battery but on chemistry.
We are mere specks of dust as compared to the jewels of the heavens – the stars, planets, and other bodies in space – that, like us, are under chemistry. Stars, too, undergo several reactions that make them shine, and some planets are made of gases which are different from one another because of their chemical properties and composition.
As chemistry is an art, it may be tangible or abstract, but it is about beauty – not just white-coated scientists mixing weird liquids in strange containers in a laboratory. Chemistry lives in us. Chemistry is all around us. The art that is chemistry is of different hues, strokes, textures, and forms – it can be embodied in different branches and subtopics that all boil down to the study of everything.