"Chemical view" of nature: sources and current state

Chemistry is a very ancient science. There are several explanations for the word "chemistry". According to one of the available theories, it comes from the ancient name of Egypt - Kham and, therefore, must mean "Egyptian art". According to another theory, the word "chemistry" comes from the Greek word cumoz (plant juice) and means "the art of juicing." This juice can be a molten metal, so with this extended interpretation of the term, it comes to include the art of metallurgy.

Chemistry is closely related elements of the elements of ancient Greek natural philosophy, the atomism of Leucippus and Democritus. But, of course, the greatest contribution to the development of this science was made by the Egyptians. The name of the first surviving chemist was Bolos of Mende, who lived in the Nile delta at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd centuries. BC. e. By 300 AD. the Egyptian Zosima wrote an encyclopedia that covered all the knowledge of chemistry collected by that time. But the chemistry presented in this work was not yet a science in the full sense of the word, but remained closely related to the ancient Egyptian religion and did not go beyond the limits of the formation of the phenomenological level. In chemistry, properties were revealed, regularities were established between them, the essence of the same phenomena was replaced by their mystical interpretation. Chemistry (chemists) eradicated and persecuted the ancient Roman emperors, fanatics of Christianity: scientists were expelled, their books were burned, science itself was forbidden. Some feared, for example, that the chemists were making gold; second pursued by scientists for the close relationship of chemistry with the ancient Egyptian religion, which, from the point of view of Christianity, was paganism.

Since the last centuries I millennium BC. chemistry has developed rapidly in the Arab world, and in the first half of this millennium it has become widespread in Western Europe. On the one hand, the development of chemistry in this period followed the development of technology, however, on the one hand, it remained closely related to religious and philosophical thought. At that time, chemistry existed mainly as alchemy.

In chemistry it is necessary to note first of all the existence of a special "chemical view" of nature, which can not be reduced to physical, despite all the successes of physical chemistry in this century. That is, chemistry has long been found the qualities of some special type. So, according to the well-known chemist A.A. Butakov, chemical reactions "can not be explained only by the action of the forces of electric attraction and repulsion. Their action explains only the physical side of the chemical process. The chemical form of the motion of matter is a process of changing particles of matter, which ultimately are determined by the action of the periodic law. " A similar opinion is shared by many other chemists. The well-known Russian physicist-chemist N.N. Semenov reduced the main differences between the physical and chemical process to three: "The history of the system, the absence of instantaneous parameters for the rates of chemical reactions, the possibility of using equilibrium parameters for physical processes and the impossibility - for chemical".

In chemistry, the inductive approach is well used, the deductive approach turned out to be much less productive here. Under the deductive approach, the whole set of known natural-science facts (not only chemical, but also physical, biological) seems to follow from a number of basic laws. Such an approach, as a rule, is quite effective in physics and where physical ideas can be used (in chemistry). The inductive approach is a movement in the opposite direction, when more or less general laws (rules, laws) are revealed on the basis of chemical factology, and then generalized models that form the basis of modern theoretical chemistry are created.

The most important features of modern chemistry are:

• 1.    In chemistry, especially in physical chemistry, there are numerous independent scientific disciplines (chemical thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, electrochemistry, thermochemistry, radiation chemistry, photochemistry, plasma chemistry, laser chemistry).

• 2.    Chemistry is actively integrated with other sciences, resulting in the emergence of biochemistry, molecular biology, cosmochemistry, geochemistry, biogeochemistry. The first study chemical processes in living organisms, geochemistry - the patterns of behavior of chemical elements in the earth's crust. Biogeochemistry is the science of the processes of displacement, distribution, scattering and concentration of chemical elements in the biosphere with the participation of organisms. The founder of biogeochemistry is V.I. Vernadsky. Cosmochemistry studies the chemical composition of matter in the universe, its abundance and distribution over individual cosmic bodies.

• 3.    In chemistry, there are fundamentally new methods of investigation (X-ray structural analysis, mass spectroscopy, radiospectroscopy, etc.).

Chemistry contributed to the intensive development of certain areas of human activity. For example, surgery chemistry has given three major means, thanks to which modern operations have become painless and generally possible: 1) the introduction into practice of ethereal anesthesia, and then other narcotic substances; 2) use of antiseptic agents to prevent infection; 3) obtaining new, nonexistent alloplastic materials-polymers.

In chemistry, the disparity of individual chemical elements is very clearly manifested. The vast majority of chemical compounds (96% of the more than 8.5 thousand known at the present time) are organic compounds. They are based on 18 elements (the most common are only 6 of them). This is due to the fact that, first, the chemical bonds are strong (energy-intensive) and, secondly, they are also labile. Carbon, like no other element, meets all these requirements of energy intensity and lability of bonds. It combines the chemical opposites, realizing their unity.

However, we emphasize that the material basis of life is not reduced to any, even the most complex, chemical formations. It is not just an aggregate of a certain chemical composition, but at the same time a structure that has functions and processes. Therefore, it is impossible to give life only a functional definition.

Recently, chemistry is increasingly undertaking an assault on neighboring levels of the structural organization of nature. For example, chemistry is increasingly invading biology, trying to explain the basics of life.