Chemistry

Course summary

Chemistry is the central science and impacts on all facets of our lives. An understanding of chemistry is necessary to all other sciences from astronomy to zoology. All of the materials used by engineers and technologists are made by chemical reactions and we all experience chemical reactions continuously, whether it be breathing or baking a cake, driving a car or listening to a battery driven iPod. We are all faced with challenges that will shape the future of our world. How are we to keep our planet clean, generate sustainable fuel and food resources for an expanding population, keep the atmosphere safe and eradicate killer diseases? We don’t yet have all the answers to these important questions but we do know that chemistry will provide some of the answers. The success of future technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells, nanotechnology and photovoltaic devices all rely on the ingenuity of chemists to devise new materials.