Organic Chemistry

Fitting nicely between the science of quantitate physics & highly descriptive biology, "Organic Chemistry" less focused on math & more on qualitative aspects of functional groups, the shapes of molecules & their arrangement of atoms in isomeric compounds with the same elemental constituents but different molecular layout or configuration. 

The shape of the molecules specifically important in the context of biochemistry or organic chemical compound derived from plants, animals, fungi, bacterial or viral pathogens. The core of the molecule & the attachment of functional groups determines the performance of the substance, for example a specific protein in a living animal like a human & its functional hormonal control mechanism or integration into cell components, mostly determined by the shape of the molecules, important in the development of therapeutic drugs & biologics, chemically modified semi-synthetic or completely synthetic substances can be tuned to have a very specific targeted effect inside the animal, for profit reasons most developed for human drug applications. 

The era of small molecule drugs drawing to a close as MAB & PAB biologics from life science & DNA research into RNA transcription & biochemical compounds made by the body that control balance of hormone levels or other cytokine axis like the melatonin vs cortisol system, important for regulating the wake sleep cycle or circadian rhythm of humans & other animals. 

Petrochemicals are the primary feedstock or base precursor source of most compounds manipulated with organic chemistry techniques applied in borosilicate chemistry glassware that does not readily interact with most common reactions. Acid & bases are extremely important because of the hydrogen ion & its broad effect in the body at shuttling electrons across cell gradients & the role that enzymes play in facilitating biochemical reactions in the human body to proceed forward at millions of times the rate of those same reactions without enzymes. Many disease for example are the result of specific enzyme deficiency. 

Nylon the first synthetic fiber was created by organic chemistry & derivatives of this idea went on to crate carbon fiber & aramid fibers & Teflon & Gore-tex & amazing fabric derivatives of these synthetic fibers. Ultra low mass harnesses & safety devices, from the airbag bag structure in automobile passenger protection systems to the composite shell structure of bicycle & motorcycle helmets, you can find petrochemical feedstock produced substances of a bewildering array of different organic chemical synthesis products to the tune of 100 million + different speciality materials & products made from petroleum & can convert a 42 gallon barrel of oil into $3000 USD2022 of value added products, way more valuable than the use of that same oil to make gasoline & diesel & jet fuel & propane & butane & ethane gases for combustion processes that make air pollution that accelerates climate change while harming, hurting & killing people with premature diseases caused by exposure to air pollution from combustion emission products, solids like PM or particulate matter, super fine dust particles that lodge deep into lung air sack cell membranes causing emphysema, lung cancer & COPD and worse, while unburned hydrocarbon vapors or HC cause kidney & brain cell damage #medicine #facts #science / to sum this up- we should be saving the dwindling global supplies of crude oil for petrochemistry & stop burning oil based fuels in transportation with broad global decarbonization with battery electric vehicles energized by nuclear fission breeder reactors using thorium & uranium fuel cycles that with element transmutation breeding technology can make electricity for 10 billion people living like 20th century 6kw continuous Americans, for millions of years! 

Many of the innovations in chemistry came out of the 1700 & 1800's as the high renaissance gave rise to the first, second, third & now fourth industrial revolution. Today information technology blending with artificial intelligence & cryptographic currencies & e-commerce & globalization across borders of nations online with EBAY & ALIBABA making it possible for people in one place to buy items from other countries anywhere in the world. Its amazing whats possible with airplanes moving goods & people, though an obvious downside is the rapid vectoring of pathogenic viral agents like that responsible for the global covid19 outbreak pandemic thats still ongoing in early 2022 worldwide! 

DNA & the study of DNA & carbon based life on Earth really the product of organic chemistry blending with graphics processing in computers, starting with university research mainframes & now on high performance desktop computers used by biologists & life-science scientists & chemical engineers & other professionals to guide the development of new higher performance drugs & explosives & fuels renewable bio-gas & bio-diesel & hydro-diesel & gas to liquids technology or GTL fuels & new solar PV materials & enhanced wind turbine blade materials & speciality lubricants for wind power turbines & hydropower turbines & turbines used in carbon thermal & nuclear thermal power plants & in jet engines & turbo-chargers. The origins of precision can be traced to early tools developed for organic chemical analytics like NMR & spectroscopy to study the structure & composition of chemical compounds, substances & molecules, many extract from plants in nature, plants used as drugs by traditional medicine for thousands of years, like ergot fungus growing on rye wheat producing ergotamine to treat migraine headaches & to reduce bleeding during childbirth & later with diethyl functional group attachment to lysergic acid extracts of ergot fungus, the production or invention of LSD by organic chemical pioneer Albert Hofmann at Sandoz. 

Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Aspirin / many blockbuster multi-billion dollar selling small molecule drugs were developed by organic chemists working at pharmaceutical companies or doing bimolecular research at universities & spinning off their tech into commercial products like Regeneron does with its biologic MAB & PAB therapeutics worth $billions // Paint, coatings, thread locker, polymers, plastics, the modern hospital would be unimaginable without applied organic chemistry on multiple different levels. 

Now with sanitation sprays & the need to slow COVID19, we have organic chemistry again to make COVID19 vaccines. Every aspect of modern life enhanced with chemistry & the science of studying how substances interact chemically, energetically exchanging electrons to form ionic, covalent bonds where electrons are shared to make stable valence octet configurations like noble gases. Consider Na+ sodium metal ion & Cl - chlorine ion combining to make salt or NaCl, essential for life, also that which makes food more palatable or tastier - salt mentioned in the Bible & known for thousands of years to preserve foods before refrigeration & to enhance flavor of foods, beverages & snacks!

Not all elements hold onto electrons to the same extent, making covalent bonds more or less polar with a dipole moment. In hydrogen fluoride H--F for example the highly electronegative F-  likes to hold onto the electrons much more than the electropositive H- ion, giving a net dipole moment to the HF molecule. This kind of electronegativity difference in chemical elements has tremendously valuable applications of batteries & electroplating & electrochemistry, from chip manufacturing at chip fabs to the functional electroplating used by automakers to reduce body / frame of the iron alloy steels used extensively in automobile construction because of their compact strength & low cost, though bulkier lower weight aluminum making inroads to the automotive space for example in the Tesla Model S, which because of its massive battery even with an aluminum space-frame, weights more than 5000 lbs. Ford was able to shave off 600lbs from aluminum intensive F150's vs their steel dominate similar models. 

Vitamins, supplements, nutritionally enhanced grain, food processing, cooking itself & baking are natural examples of organic chemical manipulation in air with heat typically used to energize chemical reaction changes that bind, fuse, combine, change or process the ingredients into the final product. Fire for example was the combustion of carbon based wood with its resins & cellulose fibers providing the organic chemical carbon & hydrocarbon substance that combust readily by combining with oxygen in the air when enough heat energy provided to kick off the ignition or reaction start of the combustable material, first wood, then charcoal made from wood, then coal dug from the ground as a dense carbon energy source & then petroleum pumped from the ground as a diverse mixture of carbon & hydrocarbon compounds, metal ions & other dissolved substances, which vary considerably based on where the oil extract, the age of the oil well, the pumping fluids used for recovery & other attributes in the subsurface conditions. 

Hydrates on the ocean floor have so much natural gas, they can provide methane as natural gas for thousand of years, though if we burned them all, there would be significantly less oxygen in the air & more water on Earth, which has implications for sea levels rising, climate change, the solar earth energy balance, global warming, agriculture, sanitation, manufacturing. Water & water quality are possibly the second most important topic right behind Energy. Without energy or water, life as we know it today would be impossible. Organic chemistry pops up in all domains of life, in every sector, in every aspect of common living, in our bodies, on our bodies, ecosystems of carbon based lifesytems forming biomes in our gut & in our eyes & mouth & anus & in our nose & sinus, inside & out we are an ecosystem of microbes, carbon based lifeforms, beneficial bacterial that help us develop & maintain immune function & help us to digest omnivore variety streams of foods & beverage consumed by human people on Earth! 

Product packages the protect from oxygen & water vapor that would spoil oils by rancid oxidation or degradation that would shorten the shelf life & promote losses & spoilage. Polymer bags & containers of all kinds made using organic chemistry techniques & processes applied enable vapor & gas barriers often combine with a thin layer of aluminum to block heat & light, which can also cause produce to sour or degrade faster, mylar also exceptional as multi-layer insulation or MLI like those invented by NASA for spacecraft insulation that can be applied for low mass insulation of RV's or recreational vehicles. Insulating foam, polymers used in mattresses & foam & shoes & flooring materials, carpets & carpeting, the plastic pollution in the ocean & how to capture it & recycle it back into high performance recycled plastic with good performance like virgin new petrochemical plastic made from crude oil derivative petrochemical. I think you get the idea here, from wire insulators to explosives used in mining & rocket fuels, we are using carbon chemical manipulation across a broad range of industries worldwide that affect all parts of life on Earth. Life on Earth carbon based, so I get organic chemistry the most natural science of them all!