Abstract
After a very brief glance at the origins of chemistry in alchemy, ‘Its origins, scope, and organization’ makes the point that all modern discussions of the subject are in terms of atoms, the currency of modern chemistry. As modern chemistry emerged, it split into a number of interacting subdisciplines, most centrally physical, inorganic, and organic chemistry, and their areas of interest are described. But chemistry is a central science, drawing its concepts from physics and illuminating biology, and ‘Its origins, scope, and organization’ concludes with a discussion of how it currently fits in to the scientific landscape—its overlap with and contribution to other disciplines.
