What is Chemistry?

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“A tidy laboratory means a lazy chemist.” -- Jöns Jacob Berzelius (Swedish chemist, 1779-1848)


The word Chemistry derives from the Arabic word for "earth", latinized as: chem (keme). Chemistry can be described as the science concerned with the composition, structure, behavior and properties of matter, in addition to the changes it can undergo during chemical reactions.. The earliest discovered evidence of chemistry dates back to ancient Egypt, with their development of synthetic “wet” chemistry over 4000 years ago.

By 1000 C.E., many civilizations were routinely using the founding forms of chemistry, including the extraction of perfumes and tinctures of plants, refining metal ores, fermenting alcohol and the dying of cloth.