The Science of Life

We in the modern world depend on the scientific field of chemistry, whether we like it or not.  Yes, there are controversial aspects, such as pesticides and herbicides , use of fossil fuels , preservatives , and the like; but there have also been relatively non-controversial chemicals which have not seen such scrutiny, such as the plates for solar panels , ozonation of water , soaps of all varieties , and the like.  They are what makes our modern world possible, for good or for bad, for better or for worse. Look at all of those damn chemicals! In the past few years, the word chemical has been hi-jacked by those who seem to mean well, but who are off the mark due to their poor understanding of the topics of which they speak.  These people want to see people be equipped with the knowledge required to lead healthy life-styles, but need themselves to have an understanding better than their initial emotional response. To be fair, he thought that baby was kidna...

These are the sources for my video on the scientific definition of the term chemical, seen here . The colloquial definition of the word chemical comes from wiktionary , which defines chemicals as "an artificial chemical compound".  There is of course a negative conotation about the definition seen in the example they provide (" I color my hair with henna, not chemicals ").  The non-colloquial, scientific definition of the word chemical comes from three text books: “Biology: A Guide to the Natural World Fifth Edition”; David Krogh; 978-0-321-61655-5; p. 22 “Chemistry: The Central Science 11th Edition”; Theodore L. Brown; 978-0-13-600617-6; p. 5 “Essentials of Geology 4th edition”; Stephen Marshak; 978-0-393-91939-4; p. 7 They all agree that a chemical is “matter that has distinct properties and a constant composition that does not vary from sample to sample and cannot be separated by physical means.”