General Chemistry 1

‘Chemistry is the branch of science that deals with the identification of the
substances of which matter is composed; the investigation of their properties and the
ways in which they interact, combine, and change; and the use of these processes to
form new substances’. These are definitions that we can read in our textbooks or in the
internet. People say that Chemistry is only the study about chemicals or elements, but
we didn’t that this study is connected in our everyday life, if we deeply look into it will be
interesting to further study about it.
Lagowski (1991) notes that chemistry has a significant importance in our daily
lives and the society in general. Everything on the earth is made of chemicals. It helps
us understand how items around us are made. In our daily life, we fall sick and
consequently need drugs which are made by scientists through chemistry. This helps to
know what drugs to take by showing their contents and their impacts on our bodies.
Through chemistry we understand how food that we eat gives energy to our body, helps
us to understand and observe the changes around us cause by chemistry. The basic
knowledge of chemistry is essential for all, it helps us in day-to-day decisions that affect
our lives, like mixing your household chemicals such as coffee and sugar. In our daily
live, we wear clothes that are made of fabrics such as nylon where it was produced and
learned through chemistry. Chemistry has significant impacts in different sectors, Health
and Medicine; Energy; Environment; Materials and Technology; Food and Agriculture.
By these observations that proves chemistry is important, life without chemicals is
impossible; we can’t live without chemistry.
3000 years ago, clinical features similar to diabetes were described by Ancient
Egyptians. The word mellitus (honey sweet) was added by Thomas Willis (Britain) in
1675 after rediscovering the sweetness of urine and blood of patients (first noticed by
the ancient Indians). It was only in 1776 that Dobson (Britain) firstly confirmed the
presence of excess sugar in urine and blood as a cause of their sweetness (Ahmed,
2002)i. Diabetes mellitus refers to a group of diseases that affect how your body uses
blood sugar (glucose). Glucose is vital to your health because it's an important source of
energy for the cells that make up your muscles and tissues. It's also your brain's main
source of fuelii. A key piece of the puzzle surrounding our understanding of diabetes
came when Frederick Sanger, a British biochemist, carried out experiments that gave
him the structure of the insulin molecule. Sanger used basic chemistry techniques and
reactions and took twelve years to complete his research. Today, automated
instruments based on his approach can perform the same analysis in a matter of days.
Sanger was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1958 for his insulin research.
Today, automated instruments based on his approach can perform the same analysis in
a matter of days. Major contribution to health care has been made by chemistry. The
development of new drugs involves chemical analysis and synthesis of compounds. The
development of a new drug is long and complicated. The chemistry of the disease must
be studied, as well as how the drug affects the human body. A drug may work well in
animals, but not in humans. Out of a hundred drugs that look like they help treat
diseases, only a small handful actually turn out to be both safe and effective. Chemistry
contributes to the preparation and use of materials for surgery (sutures, artificial skin,
and sterile materials). The sutures used in many surgeries today do not have to be
removed, because they simply dissolve in the body after a period of time. Replacement
blood vessels for heart and other types of surgery are often made of chemicals that do
not react with the tissues, so they will not be rejected by the body. Artificial skin can be
used to replace human skin for burn patients (Bewick et al.,2020) iii.
Clinical milestones mentioned above are only few achievements made by our
brilliant scientists, doctors or anyone working in the clinical workforce thousand years
ago. By those people with brilliant minds, the clinical case problems faced by healthcare
workers thousand years ago has been paid off with innovative solutions that helped
people in the medical work force in the modern days. From medicine for specific viral
diseases to devices and machines for advance treatment on severe health concerns
(cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, mental illness, etcetera). By these, we can say that
chemistry have made a huge impact in the world of medicine, it helped all living person
for their daily needs.
i
Ahmed A. M. (2002). History of diabetes mellitus. Saudi medical journal, 23(4), 373–378.
ii
Diabetes - symptoms and causes. (2020, October 30). Mayo Clinic.https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases
conditions/diabetes/symptoms-causes/syc 20371444#:%7E:text=Diabetes%20mellitus%20refers%20to
%20a,brain’s%20main%20source%20of%20fuel.
iii
Libretexts, Bewick, S., Parsons, R., Forsythe, T., Robinson, S., & Dupon, J. (2020, August 10). 1.6: Medicine.
Chemistry LibreTexts. https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_Chemistry/Book
%3A_Introductory_Chemistry_(CK-12)/01%3A_Introduction_to_Chemistry/1.06%3A_Medicine#:%7E:text=his
%20insulin%20research.-,Chemistry%20in%20Medicine,new%20drugs%20produced%20by%20chemists.