Chemistry Matter and Change by Thomas D. Le Wharton

Chemistry Matter and Change by Thomas D. Le Wharton'There is always a catch,' was the formula by which Professor Sanford le Wharton developed chemistry matters and change. This epigraph tells us that chemistry is something as old as the human race, something which grew into and grew out of the artifacts and sources of knowledge that gave form to civilization, which, indeed, came to be defined by chemistry. The concept of chemistry, le Wharton was careful to point out, has been around for a long time.It comes as no surprise then, that the first time we ever encountered a molecule, it was as nothing more than a spattering of atoms. In fact, that is how much we were unprepared for the concept. We didn't realize that the entity which had been perceived as just a bunch of atoms and molecules was really an object that could interact with other entities and change them into something new.Chemistry really started with the chemist, and le Wharton's version of chemistry, 'Acres of Diamonds,' w as taken from his laboratory notebooks. It describes how he came to define chemistry. Le Wharton's relationship with the materials which would eventually become the paper that brought his chemistry to public attention was not just a coincidence. He was, in fact, really determined to write a book on chemistry.In essence, this book was a small but very big idea. The principles and concepts of chemistry were his big idea, the behavior of substances and their reaction to one another was his big idea, and the function of a molecule as a working unit was his big idea. Even though he lived hundreds of years before Einstein and Schrödinger, the basic ideas of chemistry were really what set him apart.Another interesting fact about his chemistry is that he did not, unlike Newton, think of chemicals as being the cause of change. He thought of molecules as mere containers for chemical reactions, he didn't consider chemical substances to have any inherent properties or characteristics of their own. Of course, as in our understanding of light and colors, there is really no such thing as a 'red' molecule, just as there is no such thing as a 'blue'green' molecule. That kind of dichotomy did not fit into his understanding of chemistry.What le Wharton found was that everything that is made up of matter and energy can change, that nature is constantly changing, and that it is through the motion of matter and energy that we create the environment in which we live. His views, however, did not center entirely on the dynamic interplay between matter and energy, though he did embrace the idea that the basis of matter was matter. He also thought that the electron was not the basis of all particles and that the 'elements' or groups of matter were not actually substances at all.Le Wharton's philosophy was much more significant than the way he approached the chemistry of his day. His understanding of the interplay between matter and energy is still relevant today. It is the reason that we can study the evolution of the life on earth through the chemical interactions that occurred in the environment, it is the reason that we can study the rise and fall of civilizations, and it is the reason that we can study the processes by which nature takes on the forms of buildings, cities, nations, and countries.