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carbon
as it turns out
is
much of the focus of organic chemistry
I'm sure you've all heard us referred to as carbon-based life forms
okay the ...
definition of organic chemistry
at times
was as simple as saying it's the chemistry of carbon
the definition of organic chemistry, folks, is so blurred right now that I am
taking that part of this course, out of it.
Because you see back in the old days, they said organic chemistry was the
chemistry of everything that was taking place inside of living things.
inorganic chemistry was the stuff that was taking place in things that were never alive
so the chemistry rocks. . . minerals. . . metals
we call those inorganic.
the chemistry that was taking place within your blood . . . the proteins . . .
carbohydrates
okay, we said that that was organic
Has anybody here been to a health food store recently?
I remember a couple of years back.
I went to a health food store looking for some vitamin c tablets
and the person who worked there
took me to an isle. They said alright here's our vitamin C
we have our
synthetic vitamin C
that's not so good and here's our natural vitamin C
This one actually came from oranges or whatever they took it from.
when they said that what they were saying is that here's the vitamin C that
was produced in the laboratory in here's the vitamin C that was produced in a
living thing?
Is there any difference between a chemical that is produced in the
laboratory
or one that's been produced a living thing
the answer is absolutely not. okay?
As a matter of fact, up until the 1800s people thought
that organic molecules were impossible to synthesize
because organic molecules had a life force within them
they actually believed that organic molecules had sort of a soul and since
we could never possibly synthesize that soul
we could never ever create an organic molecule
and all that was laid to rest when frederick Wohler decided he was going to
synthesize urea
from inorganic materials.
That was the beginning of organic chemistry.
it just so happens that the molecules that we're most interested in
will always contain carbon.
that's not to say that there isn't carbon in
in inorganic chemistry. It just means that it's primarily the focus of organic
chemistry.
So let's let's start off with a question . . .
The question is "Why is it the carbon is so special?"
what's so important about this particular this particular
element?
Well, it turns out that it's a very versatile element
that's capable of producing structures of a very diverse range