Chemists study the nature and characteristics of substances and the changes they undergo when they are mixed one with another, and utilize this information to prepare new substances of value to society. Chemistry is involved in some way with almost everything we do or use. Chemists are employed in industries and companies which provide us with food, energy, consumer goods, in regulatory bodies that protect our health, environment and general well-being and in research institutions that create futuristic materials and help to solve a variety of chemical problems.
Chemistry asks questions such as:
- Are there contaminants in food products that make it unfit for human consumption?
- What are the natural concentrations of heavy metals in ground water?
- How is a new industrial process likely to affect the environment?
- How can we design an efficient and useful fuel cell?
- What are the structures of the molecules that give rise to phenomena such as superconductivity?
- Can we use small molecules as building blocks to assemble tiny molecular machines that can perform tasks such as drug delivery?
- What types of materials can be made to make stronger, lighter metals for aircraft?
- Can we design catalysts that improve the production of plastics?
- Can we synthesize environmentally safe and/or biodegradable plastics and coatings?
- How can we make industrial chemicals from oil and natural gas?
- How can we make pharmaceuticals, vitamins or other important biological chemicals?
- How do pharmaceuticals, enzymes and vitamins work in the body?
- How do animals and plants protect themselves from predators?
- What are the key chemical reactions that allowed life to evolve?
- Can we us the chemical signals produced by all living things to control pests?
- How can we tell what is happening inside a blast furnace, or in the exhaust of a jet engine, or down a coal mine?
- Can we synthesize chemicals which can be used in the production of blue light emitting diodes?
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