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The Chemistry Portal

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Welcome to the chemistry portal. Chemistry, from Arabic language khemeia meaning "alchemy", is a branch of science. Modern chemistry focuses on the study of elements of the world and the bonds between elements. Chemistry also deals with composition, structure, and properties of substances and the transformations that they undergo. In the study of matter, chemistry also investigates its interactions with energy and itself. Because of the diversity of matter, which is mostly in the form of compounds, chemists often study how atoms of different chemical elements interact to form molecules, and how molecules interact with each other.

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Featured article

The experimental setup for a typical aldol reaction.

The aldol reaction is an important carbon-carbon bond formation reaction in organic chemistry. In its usual form, it involves the nucleophilic addition of a ketone enolate to an aldehyde to form a β-hydroxy ketone, or "aldol" (aldehyde + alcohol), a structural unit found in many naturally occurring molecules and pharmaceuticals. Sometimes, the aldol addition product loses a molecule of water during the reaction to form an α,β-unsaturated ketone. This is called an aldol condensation. The aldol reaction was discovered independently by Charles-Adolphe Wurtz and by Alexander Porfyrevich Borodin in 1872. Borodin observed the aldol dimerization of 3-hydroxybutanal from acetaldehyde under acidic conditions. The aldol reaction is used widely in the large scale production of commodity chemicals such as pentaerythritol and in the pharmaceutical industry for the synthesis of optically pure drugs. For example, Pfizer's initial route to the heart disease drug Lipitor (INN: atorvastatin), approved in 1996, employed two aldol reactions, allowing access to multigram-scale quantities of the drug.

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Selected picture

Credit: Ikar.us

The petroleum industry is an important supplier of chemical feedstocks. The picture shows gas storage tanks at the MiRO oil refinery in Karlsruhe, Germany.

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History and Philosophy of Chemistry

Many chemists have an interest in the history of chemistry. Those with philosophical interests will be interested that the philosophy of chemistry has quite recently developed along a path somewhat different from the general philosophy of science.

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There is a Wikipedia Project on the History of Science and portals for the scientific method and philosophy of science.

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Chemistry Resources

Wikipedia:WikiProject Chemicals/Data is a collection of links and references that are useful for chemistry-related works. This includes free online chemical databases, publications, patents, computer programs, and various tools.

Science is Fun University of Wisconsin-Madison Chemistry Professor Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, shares the fun of science.

Chemistry Problems 1.0 Federico II University of Napoli (Italy) Chemistry Professor Michele Vacatello, free educational software for General Chemistry with various tools and simulations.

megaConverter The Web's best place to figure out what equals what.

General Chemistry Online Clear text and comprehensive coverage of general chemistry topics by Fred Senese, Dept. of Chemistry Frostburg State University

General Chemistry Demonstration at Purdue Video clips (and descriptions) of lecture demonstrations.

Intota Chemistry Experts A large online listing of real-world chemistry expert biographies provides examples of the many areas of expertise and careers in chemistry.

Chemistry Webercises Directory A large listing of chemistry resources maintained by Steven Murov, Emeritus Chemistry Professor Modesto Junior College.

MathMol MathMol (Mathematics and Molecules) is a good starting point for those interested in the field of molecular modeling.

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In the news

Arthur Kornberg

10-30 Chemists from the University of Delaware, Newark, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently reported their preparation of a complex containing two chromium atoms connected by the shortest ever metal-metal bond, 1.8028 Å (0.l nm) long. It is believed to contain a quintuple bond. Read more...
10-26 Arthur Kornberg died on October 26, 2007 of respiratory failure at age 89. Kornberg was the first to isolate DNA polymerase I, for which he won the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Read more...
10-10 The 2007 Nobel Prize for Chemistry is awarded to Gerhard Ertl of the Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin, "for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces". Read more...
08-12 British chemical giant ICI accepts a takeover offer of £8 billion from Dutch Akzo Nobel. Assuming approval goes through, this marks the end of a British industrial icon, known for its discovery of polyethylene and for its Dulux paint line. Read more...

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Selected biography

Yuan Tseh Lee (born 1936) is a Taiwanese chemist, and the first Taiwanese-born Nobel Prize laureate. Along with John Charles Polanyi and Dudley R. Herschbach, he received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for their contributions to the dynamics of chemical elementary processes." Lee's particular work was on crossed molecular beams, to further its use in general reactions, a method for the study of important reactions for relatively large molecules. Since 1994, Lee has been the President of the Academia Sinica of the Republic of China.

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