What is the importance of chemistry in human life? The role of chemistry in the modern world

The importance of chemistry in modern society

Chemical knowledge is a powerful force in the hands of humanity. Knowledge of the properties of chemical substances and methods for their preparation not only allows us to study and understand nature, but also to obtain new, still unknown substances, and to assume the existence of substances with the necessary properties.

But chemicals can also pose dangers to humans and the environment. The famous science fiction writer and chemist Isaac Asimov wrote: “Chemistry is death packaged in cans and boxes.” And what has been said is true not only for chemistry, but also for electricity, radio electronics, and transport. We cannot live without electricity, but a bare wire is deadly, cars help us move, but people often die under their wheels. The use by humanity of the achievements of modern science and technology, including chemistry, requires deep knowledge and a high general culture.

Only responsible, rational use of natural resources can become the key to the sustainable development of our civilization!

Chemistry in everyday life

It is impossible to imagine modern life without chemistry. And not only indirectly, through the use of food, clothing, shoes, fuel, housing, but also directly, through the use of glass, plastic, porcelain and earthenware products, medicines, disinfectants, cosmetics, various adhesives, varnishes, paints, food additives, etc.

Various detergents have finally entered our everyday life. But besides soap and shampoos, we use many other products, in particular bleaches. The action of most of them is based on the properties of chlorine-containing compounds, which are strong oxidizing agents. Some products indicate “Do not contain Chlorine.” Such products contain other strong oxidizing agents, for example sodium perborate NaBO 2. H2O2. 3H 2 O or sodium percarbonate Na 2 CO 3. 1.5H 2 O 2 . H 2 O. Hard water can cause damage to washing machines, so we use water softeners.

Creation of new materials

The creation of new materials is a necessity of modern life. Materials with new, improved properties should replace outdated ones. High-tech industries also require new materials: space and nuclear technology, electronics. Practical needs require metals, polymers, ceramics, dyes, fibers and more.

Composites occupy a special place among new materials. In many properties - strength, toughness - composites significantly exceed traditional materials, due to which society's needs for them are constantly growing. More and more resources are being spent on creating composites, and the main consumers of composites today are the automotive and space industries (Fig. 40.1).

Biomaterials

With the development of medicine, the need arose to replace organs and tissues in the human body. Materials that can be used to make various implants are created in chemical laboratories. Metal prostheses are easy to manufacture, very durable, chemically inert and relatively cheap. The main disadvantage of metals is that they are subject to corrosion, due to which mechanical strength is reduced, and the body is poisoned by ions of metal elements. Titanium alloys (for example, Ti-Al-V) are quite promising for the manufacture of implants. They are durable, relatively light and corrosion resistant.

Today, ceramic bioimplants are increasingly used. Ceramics is a wonderful biomaterial: it is durable and does not corrode. In addition, ceramics do not wear off, which is important for artificial joints, and is also characterized by biocompatibility.

Rice. 40.1. The use of composite materials: carbon fabric (carbon fiber) (a) is used to reinforce parts of bicycles and cars; the hulls of kayaks and small boats (b) and even entire houses are made from fiberglass.

Rice. 40.2. Modern biomaterials are used for the manufacture of artificial joints and multifunctional prosthetic limbs

Rational use of natural raw materials

Nature seems to be an inexhaustible storehouse from which humanity takes the necessary raw materials. Over the past 20 years, more minerals have been consumed than in the entire history of mankind. About 100 billion tons of rocks are mined and processed annually in the world. Many sources of raw materials have already been depleted, so the raw materials problem is acute. Already today, many countries lack certain natural resources. In Ukraine, for example, there is a shortage of oil and natural gas.

The integrated use of raw materials and waste is the basis of combined production (various chemical, chemical with metallurgical, etc.). It is necessary to introduce waste-free technologies, that is, production processes in which waste from one production becomes raw materials (reagents) for another.

An inexhaustible source of raw materials is industrial and household waste. The task of chemists is to develop methods for the efficient use of such waste. The use of secondary raw materials makes it possible to save natural raw materials and energy, as well as reduce the cost of the product, since resource consumption is 2-3 times (and for some types up to 6 times) less than production from primary raw materials. For example, smelting steel from scrap metal requires 6-7 times less energy costs and 25 times cheaper than producing steel from ore.

Key idea

Chemistry has entered all spheres of life and activity of mankind. In everyday life we use many chemical products. Chemistry makes it possible to create new materials that do not exist in nature.

Control questions

486. Name the chemical products that you use in everyday life.

487. Give examples of the adverse effects of chemicals and technologies on the environment or humans.

488. Describe what your life would be like if there were no chemical products in it.

489. Describe the role of chemistry in the creation of new materials and in solving energy and raw materials problems.

Assignments for mastering the material

490*. Find out from adults whether there are chemical enterprises in your city, town, or region. Which? What do they produce? How do they affect the environment? Can a person refuse the products of these industries? Justify your answer.

491* Search additional sources for information about the principles of environmental management and the importance of chemistry in implementing these principles.

This is textbook material

The importance of chemistry in human life is difficult to overestimate. Let us present the fundamental areas in which chemistry has a creative impact on people’s lives.

1. The emergence and development of human life is not possible without chemistry. It is chemical processes, many of whose secrets scientists have not yet revealed, that are responsible for that gigantic transition from inanimate matter to the simplest single-celled organisms, and then to the pinnacle of the modern evolutionary process - man.

2. Most of the material needs that arise in human life are served by natural chemistry or are satisfied as a result of the use of chemical processes in production.

3. Even the lofty and humanistic aspirations of people are fundamentally based on the chemistry of the human body, and, in particular, strongly depend on the chemical processes in the human brain.

Of course, all the richness and diversity of life cannot be reduced only to chemistry. But along with physics and psychology, chemistry as a science is a determining factor in the development of human civilization.

Chemistry of life

As far as we currently know, our planet formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago, and the simplest fermenting single-celled life forms have existed for 3.5 billion years. Already 3.1 billion years ago they could have used photosynthesis, but geological data on the oxidizing state of sedimentary iron deposits indicate that the Earth's atmosphere became oxidizing only 1.8-1.4 billion years ago. Multicellular life forms, which apparently depended on the abundance of energy possible only by breathing oxygen, appeared on Earth approximately a billion to 700 million years ago, and it was at that time that the further evolution of higher organisms began to take shape. The most revolutionary step since the origin of life itself was the use of an extraterrestrial source of energy, the Sun. Ultimately, this is what turned the meager sprouts of life, which used random natural molecules with a lot of free energy, into a huge force capable of transforming the surface of the planet and even extending beyond its boundaries.

Currently, scientists are of the view that the origin of life on Earth occurred in a reducing atmosphere, which consisted of ammonia, methane, water and carbon dioxide, but did not contain free oxygen.
The first living organisms obtained energy by decomposing molecules of non-biological origin with large free energy into smaller molecules without oxidizing them. It is assumed that in the early stages of the Earth's existence, it had a reducing atmosphere consisting of gases such as hydrogen, methane, water, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, but containing little or no free oxygen. Free oxygen would destroy organic compounds faster than they could be synthesized as a result of naturally occurring processes (under the influence of electrical discharge, ultraviolet radiation, heat or natural radioactivity). Under these reducing conditions, organic molecules that were formed by non-biological means could not be destroyed by oxidation, as happens in our time, but continued to accumulate over thousands of years, until finally compact localized formations of chemical substances appeared. which can already be considered living organisms.
The living organisms that emerged could maintain existence by destroying naturally occurring organic compounds, absorbing their energy. But if this were the only source of energy, then life on our planet would be extremely limited. Fortunately, about 3 billion years ago, important metal compounds with porphyrins appeared, opening the way to the use of an entirely new source of energy: sunlight. The first step that raised life on Earth above the role of a simple consumer of organic compounds was the inclusion of coordination chemistry processes.

Apparently, the restructuring was a side effect of the emergence of a new method of storing energy - photosynthesis * - which gave its owners a huge advantage over simple enzymatic energy absorbers. Organisms that developed this new property could use the energy of sunlight to synthesize their own energy-intensive molecules and no longer depend on what was in their environment. They became the predecessors of all green plants.
Today, all living organisms can be divided into two categories: those that are able to make their own food using sunlight, and those that are not. Most likely, its related bacteria are today living fossils, descendants of those ancient fermentable anaerobes that retreated into rare anaerobic regions of the world when the atmosphere as a whole accumulated large quantities of free oxygen and acquired an oxidizing character. Since organisms of the second category exist due to the organisms of the first category they eat, the accumulation of energy through photosynthesis is the source of driving force for everything living on Earth.

The general reaction of photosynthesis in green plants is the reverse of the combustion of glucose and occurs with the absorption of a significant amount of energy.

6 CO2 + 6 H2 O --> C6 H12 O6 + 6 O2

The water is split into its elements, which creates a source of hydrogen atoms to reduce carbon dioxide into glucose, and unwanted oxygen gas is released into the atmosphere. The energy required to carry out this highly non-spontaneous process is provided by sunlight. In the most ancient forms of bacterial photosynthesis, the source of reducing hydrogen was not water, but hydrogen sulfide, organic matter, or hydrogen gas itself, but the easy availability of water made this the most convenient source, and it is now used by all algae and green plants. The simplest organisms that carry out photosynthesis with the release of oxygen are blue-green algae. It is more correct to designate them by the modern name cyanobacteria, since they are, in fact, bacteria that have learned to extract their own food from carbon dioxide, water and sunlight.

Unfortunately, photosynthesis releases a dangerous byproduct, oxygen. Oxygen was not only useless to early organisms, it competed with them by oxidizing naturally occurring organic compounds before they could be metabolized by those organisms. Oxygen was a much more efficient “devourer” of energy-intensive compounds than living matter. Even worse, the layer of ozone that gradually formed from oxygen in the upper atmosphere blocked the sun's ultraviolet radiation and further slowed the natural synthesis of organic compounds. From all modern points of view, the appearance of free oxygen in the atmosphere was a threat to life.
But, as often happens, life managed to get around this obstacle and even turned it into an advantage. The waste products of the primary protozoa were compounds such as lactic acid and ethanol. These substances are much less energy-intensive compared to sugars, but they are capable of releasing a large amount of energy if they are completely oxidized to CO2 and H2 O. As a result of evolution, living organisms arose that are able to “fix” dangerous oxygen in the form of H2 O and CO2, and in return receive the energy of combustion of what was previously their waste. The benefits of burning food with oxygen have proven to be so great that the vast majority of life forms - plants and animals - now use oxygen respiration.

When new sources of energy appeared, a new problem arose, no longer associated with obtaining food or oxygen, but with transporting oxygen to the proper place in the body. Small organisms could make do with simple diffusion of gases through the liquids they contained, but this was not enough for multicellular creatures. Thus, another obstacle arose before evolution.
Breaking the deadlock for the third time was possible thanks to the processes of coordination chemistry. Molecules appeared, consisting of iron, porphyrin and protein, in which iron could bind an oxygen molecule without oxidizing. Oxygen is simply transported to different parts of the body to be released under the right conditions - acidity and lack of oxygen. One of these molecules, hemoglobin, carries O2 in the blood, and the other, myoglobin, receives and stores (stores) oxygen in muscle tissue until it is needed in chemical processes. As a result of the appearance of myoglobin and hemoglobin, restrictions on the size of living organisms were lifted. This led to the emergence of a variety of multicellular organisms, and ultimately humans.

* Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy into chemical bond energy of the resulting substances.

** Metabolism is the breakdown of energy-rich substances and the extraction of their energy.

Chemistry as a mirror of human life.

Look around and you will see that the life of a modern person is impossible without chemistry. We use chemistry in food production. We drive cars whose metal, rubber and plastic are made using chemical processes. We use perfumes, eau de toilette, soap and deodorants, the production of which is unthinkable without chemicals. There is even an opinion that the most sublime human feeling, love, is a set of certain chemical reactions in the body.
This approach to considering the role of chemistry in human life is, in my opinion, simplified, and I suggest you deepen and expand it, moving to a completely new plane of assessment of chemistry and its impact on human society.

Relatively recently, people realized that conscious imitation of nature in technology can give excellent results. By copying a bird's wing, we created an airplane. Having considered the method of movement of the worm, we obtained tractor tracks. By taking a closer look at the movements of the skin of dolphins and sharks, they were able to significantly increase the speed of the torpedo as it moved in the water. There are many more such examples that can be given, and there will be even more of them if we apply this approach more often.

What about chemistry? Is it really possible that it, being in fact a more “subtle” and deeper science, compared to the mechanics of macro-objects, will not give us any hints and clues, having considered which, a person would take the next step in his development. It turns out that such clues exist, but no one has yet tried to find and use them. And it turned out that these clues concern a higher area than those given by mechanics.

The world of people is rich and diverse, but still the behavior of each person individually, and stable human groups or communities, can be reduced to a certain set of qualities. And here we can draw an analogy between an atom and a person. Indeed, although the number of different atoms is limited, they can be arranged in completely different ways in molecules and actually interact differently, depending on what they have to react with. That's how man is.

Now let's compare the properties of an atom (from the point of view of chemistry) and a person (from the point of view of human relationships).

The most active are alkali metal atoms. Their repulsive shield of electrons is small and weak, but they can interact with almost all chemical elements. A person of this type can also communicate well and get along with other people. But he will lose his individuality. After all, alkali metals are not found in pure form in nature, but are found only in the form of compounds.

On the other hand, noble gases create an insurmountable barrier of eight electrons around themselves, and special conditions must be created to force them to react. So are people. By fencing off from the whole world, a person or society loses the ability to change and develop, because interaction is a mutual action. In the process, both sides change.

And finally, the ideal of the world of chemical elements is carbon. This element harmoniously combines security (4 electrons) and openness (4 vacancies). Moreover, the distribution of electrons can change quite easily without requiring large energy expenditures. Carbon is capable of forming double and triple bonds by interacting with its own kind.

In our search for the ideal person, we must use this information. By showing in our behavior a reasonable compromise between defending our interests (defense) and taking into account the opinions of our opponents, slightly changing our approaches to solving problems, just as a carbon atom changes the location of its electrons and vacancies during reactions, we will advance in obtaining results much further than, if they kept their position unchanged.

Taking into account the fact that this approach can be applied by a large number of people, they, like identical carbon atoms, will be able to form strong (double and triple) bonds. The same can be said in relation to human communities (small groups, public associations and entire states).

Developing this idea, we can assume that the most promising path for the development of humanity is the direction in which there will be a wide variety of views and opinions in society, a significant number of methods of action will be permitted by law, but the majority of people will have universality, the ability to understand other people and interact with them , similar to the versatility of the carbon atom. Under such conditions, the life of society will be harmonious and stable.

The example of hydrogen is also very indicative in this matter. Reduce your sphere of influence (or reduce the scope of your requests) and you, like the hydrogen atom, will be able to interact and unite with a much larger number of people (elements).

So, summarizing all of the above, we note that chemistry in human life can become a guiding star for the harmonious development of the entire human society.

Applied issues of the influence of chemistry on the development of human life.

In the previous chapter, we highlighted the philosophical approach to assessing chemistry in human life. This was, so to speak, a general view. Here we will consider the role of chemistry and its impact on human life from a strategic perspective.

If we take as the main goal of the existence of human civilization its harmonious and comprehensive development, especially in intellectual matters, then the question arises of what chemistry can do on this path. By studying the behavior of people and especially the influence on their behavior of what they eat, we can draw an unambiguous conclusion. Natural healthy foods contain substances that can not only increase the body's physical performance, but also stimulate its brain activity. Therefore, by using such food at the right time in the right quantities, we could accelerate the development of human civilization without spending more resources on it than now. This approach is a new social innovation, and, consequently, the role of chemistry in human life will increase even more.

It is necessary to conduct large-scale scientific research in this area and apply its results in everyday life. After all, even such a social evil as alcoholism can be defeated by wisely using the “food issue” in relation to people suffering from this illness.

I'll say even more. Applying this approach to nutritional issues for incarcerated people can clearly reduce the rate of recidivism.

The same method can be applied to fertility planning.

Of course, in each of the proposed areas, we should not infringe on a person’s freedom of choice. But given that we are what we eat, the use of the above strategies is a completely reasonable alternative to modern methods.

And now about what, in my opinion, is the most decisive strategy that needs to be implemented. This page is part of a site dedicated to the general theory of interactions, a new alternative theory. Chemical processes, and the very structure of atoms, are shown in this theory in simple human language and using animation; compare these views with those you have seen in textbooks. And make your choice. Perhaps he will not be in favor of the general theory of interactions, but one thing is certain. Chemistry will appear before you as an interesting science, without gaps and inconsistencies in views, without unfounded postulates, a science in which there are no boundaries for creativity. You can use the general theory of interactions to understand many very vaguely explained issues. Moreover, you don’t even have to remember the descriptions made by me; they themselves will be recorded in your memory, because they are simple and consistent. True, you will have to take something else in the exam.

The importance of chemistry in human life is difficult to overestimate. Let us present the fundamental areas in which chemistry has a creative impact on people’s lives.

2. Most of the material needs that arise in human life are served by natural chemistry or are satisfied as a result of the use of chemical processes in production.

3. Even the lofty and humanistic aspirations of people are fundamentally based on the chemistry of the human body, and, in particular, strongly depend on the chemical processes in the human brain.

Chemistry of life

The general reaction of photosynthesis in green plants is the reverse of the combustion of glucose and occurs with the absorption of a significant amount of energy.

6 CO 2 + 6 H 2 O --> C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6 O 2

Unfortunately, photosynthesis releases a dangerous byproduct, oxygen. Oxygen was not only useless to early organisms, it competed with them by oxidizing naturally occurring organic compounds before they could be metabolized by those organisms. Oxygen was a much more efficient “devourer” of energy-intensive compounds than living matter. Even worse, the layer of ozone that gradually formed from oxygen in the upper atmosphere blocked the sun's ultraviolet radiation and further slowed the natural synthesis of organic compounds. From all modern points of view, the appearance of free oxygen in the atmosphere was a threat to life.
But, as often happens, life managed to get around this obstacle and even turned it into an advantage. The waste products of the primary protozoa were compounds such as lactic acid and ethanol. These substances are much less energy-intensive compared to sugars, but they are capable of releasing large amounts of energy if they are completely oxidized to CO 2 and H 2 O. As a result of evolution, living organisms arose that are capable of “fixing” dangerous oxygen in the form of H 2 O and CO 2 , and in return receive the energy of combustion of what was previously their waste. The benefits of burning food with oxygen have proven to be so great that the vast majority of life forms - plants and animals - now use oxygen respiration.

* Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy into chemical bond energy of the resulting substances.

** Metabolism is the breakdown of energy-rich substances and the extraction of their energy.

Chemistry as a mirror of human life.

Introduction

The role of chemistry in modern life is very clearly defined: chemistry is energy, heat, household chemicals.

Chemistry as a science and at the same time as an area of application of knowledge is very impressive. Without the use of chemical technologies, material production is impossible. New materials are constantly entering our lives. For many centuries, chemistry developed as alchemy - the search for the philosopher's stone. Nowadays it is one of the most fundamental sciences about substances and their properties, without which life itself is impossible.

Chemistry as a component of culture fills with content a number of fundamental ideas about the world, the connection between the structure and properties of a complex system, probabilistic ideas and ideas about symmetry, chaos and order; conservation laws; unity of discrete and continuous; the evolution of matter - all this finds visual expression on the factual material of chemistry, provides food for thought about the world around us, for the harmonious development of the individual.

The role of chemistry in human life

Everywhere, wherever we turn our gaze, we are surrounded by objects and products made from substances and materials obtained in chemical plants and factories. In addition, in everyday life, without knowing it, every person carries out chemical reactions. For example, washing with soap, washing with detergents, etc. When a piece of lemon is dropped into a glass of hot tea, the color weakens - tea here acts as an acid indicator, similar to litmus. A similar acid-base interaction occurs when chopped blue cabbage is soaked in vinegar. Housewives know that cabbage turns pink. By lighting a match, mixing sand and cement with water, or extinguishing lime with water, or burning a brick, we carry out real and sometimes quite complex chemical reactions. Explaining these and other widespread chemical processes in human life is the job of specialists.

Cooking is also a chemical process. It’s not for nothing that they say that women chemists are often very good cooks. Indeed, cooking in the kitchen can sometimes feel like performing organic synthesis in a laboratory. Only instead of flasks and retorts in the kitchen they use pots and pans, but sometimes also autoclaves in the form of pressure cookers. There is no need to further list the chemical processes that a person carries out in everyday life. It is only necessary to note that in any living organism various chemical reactions take place in huge quantities. The processes of assimilation of food, breathing of animals and humans are based on chemical reactions. The growth of a small blade of grass and a mighty tree is also based on chemical reactions.

Chemistry is a science, an important part of natural science. Strictly speaking, science cannot surround a person. He may be surrounded by the results of the practical application of science. This clarification is very significant. Nowadays you can often hear the words: “chemistry has ruined nature”, “chemistry

Water on a planetary scale

Humanity has long paid great attention to water, since it was well known that where there is no water, there is no life. In dry soil, grain can lie for many years and germinate only in the presence of moisture. Despite the fact that water is the most abundant substance, it is distributed very unevenly on Earth. On the African continent and Asia there are vast areas devoid of water - deserts. An entire country – Algeria – lives on imported water. Water is delivered by ship to some coastal areas and islands of Greece. Sometimes water costs more than wine there. According to the United Nations, in 1985, 2.5 billion of the world's population lacked clean drinking water.

The surface of the globe is 3/4 covered with water - these are oceans, seas; lakes, glaciers. Water is found in fairly large quantities in the atmosphere, as well as in the earth's crust. The total reserves of free water on Earth are 1.4 billion km3. The main amount of water is contained in the oceans (about 97.6%), with 2.14% of water on our planet in the form of ice. Water from rivers and lakes makes up only 0.29% and atmospheric water – 0.0005%.

Water is in a constant and active cycle. Its driving force is the Sun, and its main source of water is the World Ocean. Almost a quarter of all solar energy falling on the Earth is spent on the evaporation of water from the surfaces of reservoirs. Every year, 511 thousand km3 of water rises into the atmosphere in this way, of which 411 thousand km3 comes from the surface of the ocean. Approximately 2/3 of atmospheric water returns as precipitation back to the ocean, and 1/3 falls on land. Annual precipitation is 40 times higher than the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. If they fell immediately, they could form a layer 1 m thick on the Earth. This water replenishes glaciers, rivers and lakes. In turn, continental surface waters again flow into the seas and oceans, dissolving the existing