Our Lives Made Better Through Chemistry and
Biochemistry
Chemistry, which investigates and explains the structure and properties of matter, and
biochemistry, the study of the chemistry of living organisms, allow us to understand
and improve the world in which we live. We come face-to-face with chemistry and
biochemistry everyday in many different ways.
Chemistry and biochemistry provide the most powerful set of tools available to cre-
ate new forms of matter with an infinite variety of interesting and useful properties.
Expanding knowledge in these fields over the last 100 years has transformed the way
we live. The fuels we use for transportation, the homes in which we live, the batteries
that power our lives, the vaccines that protect us, the medicines and medical technol-
ogy with which we are treated, the fertilizers we use on our lawns and for growing
crops, and the electronics we depend upon, have all been developed through research
in chemistry and biochemistry.
What we do enhances our daily lives.
Future contributions from chemistry and biochemistry will undoubtedly surpass past
accomplishments, and new discoveries not yet imagined will be transformative.
• Providing enough energy to support the needs and desires of a growing popula-
tion while minimizing carbon emissions is a daunting challenge. Chemists will
play the central role in discovering new methods for solar energy conversion, im-
proving the efficiencies of existing methods, developing new and more efficient
fuel cells and finding better catalysts for a variety of industrial processes and pol-
lution mitigation.
• Medical research, with its increasing focus on developing a molecular level un-
derstanding of disease states to develop new therapies, is critically dependent on
fundamental new discoveries in chemistry and biochemistry. There is every reason
to expect great progress in the diagnosis and treatment of serious diseases such as
cancer, HIV/AIDS, avian flu, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease as our under-
standing of these disease states at the molecular level improves.
• Nanotechnology, widely considered to be the next transforming technology of
our time, was built upon discoveries by chemists and biochemists, and it depends
upon their continued creativity and imagination to realize its potential. The abil-
ity to synthesize and manipulate nanometer-size structures with atomic-level con-
trol promises to provide new solutions for many of society’s greatest technological
needs.
Imagine manufacturing processes that yield virtually no waste or pollution, build-
ing materials that sense heat and humidity and then change to accommodate varying
weather conditions, and prosthetic and medical implants with surfaces mo lecularly de-
signed to interact with the body, assisting the regeneration of bone or skin. Advances
in chemistry and biochemistry will make all of this possible.
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