What History Tells Us about the Distinct Nature of Chemistry.
Accepted version
Peer-reviewed
Repository URI
Repository DOI
Change log
Authors
Chang, Hasok https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1287-4509
Abstract
Attention to the history of chemistry can help us recognise the characteristics of chemistry that have helped to maintain it as a separate scientific discipline with a unique identity. Three such features are highlighted in this paper. First, chemistry has maintained a distinct type of theoretical thinking, independent from that of physics even in the era of quantum chemistry. Second, chemical research has always been shaped by its ineliminable practical relevance and usefulness. Third, the lived experience of chemistry, spanning the laboratory, the classroom and everyday life, is distinctive in its multidimensional sensuousness. Furthermore, I argue that the combination of these three features makes chemistry an exemplary science.
Description
Keywords
0307 Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, 0306 Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
Journal Title
Ambix
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0002-6980
1745-8234
1745-8234
Volume Title
64
Publisher
Informa UK Limited