Origin Download ((NEW)) Chemistry
Katharyn Kasson
According to the Egyptologist Wallis Budge, the Arabic word al-kīmiyaʾ actually means "the Egyptian [science]", borrowing from the Coptic word for "Egypt", kēme (or its equivalent in the Mediaeval Bohairic dialect of Coptic, khēme). This Coptic word derives from Demotic kmỉ, itself from ancient Egyptian kmt. The ancient Egyptian word referred to both the country and the colour "black" (Egypt was the "Black Land", by contrast with the "Red Land", the surrounding desert); so this etymology could also explain the nickname "Egyptian black arts". However, according to Mahn, this theory may be an example of folk etymology.[7] Assuming an Egyptian origin, chemistry is defined as follows:
Thus, according to Budge and others, chemistry derives from an Egyptian word khemein or khēmia, "preparation of black powder", ultimately derived from the name khem, Egypt. A decree of Diocletian, written about 300 AD in Greek, speaks against "the ancient writings of the Egyptians, which treat of the khēmia transmutation of gold and silver".[8]
Arabic al-kīmiyaʾ or al-khīmiyaʾ (الكيمياء or الخيمياء), according to some, is thought to derive from the Koine Greek word khymeia (χυμεία) meaning "the art of alloying metals, alchemy"; in the manuscripts, this word is also written khēmeia (χημεία) or kheimeia (χειμεία),[9] which is the probable basis of the Arabic form. According to Mahn, the Greek word χυμεία khumeia originally meant "cast together", "casting together", "weld", "alloy", etc. (cf. Gk. kheein (χέειν) "to pour"; khuma (χύμα), "that which is poured out, an ingot").[7] Assuming a Greek origin, chemistry is defined as follows:
Thapsigargin was originally isolated from the roots of the Mediterranean umbelliferous plant Thapsia garganica in order to characterize the skin irritant principle. Characteristic chemical properties and semi-syntheses are reviewed. The biological activity was related to the subnanomolar affinity for the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase. Prolonged inhibition of the pump afforded collapse of the calcium homeostasis and eventually apoptosis. Structure-activity relationships enabled design of an equipotent analogue containing a linker. Conjugation of the analogue containing the linker with peptides, which only are substrates for either prostate specific antigen (PSA) or prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) enabled design of prodrugs targeting a number of cancer diseases including prostate cancer (G115) and hepatocellular carcinoma (G202). Prodrug G202 has under the name of mipsagargin in phase II clinical trials shown promising properties against hepatocellular carcinoma.
The word chemistry is said to have roots in either ancient Egypt or Greece. Science historian Howard Markel discusses the word's origin, and the modern naming of the field of chemistry by British natural philosopher and alchemist Robert Boyle in his 1661 treatise, The Skeptical Chymist.
IRA FLATOW, host: Time now for our monthly episode of Science Diction, where we talk about the origins of scientific words, with my guest Howard Markel, professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, also director of the Center for the History of Medicine. They should combine those names to make it easier to say. Hi, Howard.
MARKEL: We do. We do. You know, there's a lot - we've all taken chemistry in high school, and some of us have even taken it in college. But there's a great of controversy. Did it come from ancient Egypt or from ancient Greece? Now some have claimed that there's an Egyptian origin. Back in 300 A.D., a Roman emperor, Diocletian, decreed that the burning all of Egyptian writings that outline the transmutation of gold into silver. And based on this edict, as well as several hieroglyphic inscriptions, people such as Plutarch in 100 A.D. insisted that the root word chem was derived from the name of ancient Egypt, which was called the land of chem, or alchemia. And that really means rich black soil, the type of soil that flourished near the banks of the Nile, and it was prized for its fertility as opposed to the sand of the surrounding desert.
But the Oxford English Dictionary, on the other hand, declares that the word is more likely the child of Greek roots, chemia, which means pouring or infusion. And the ancient Greeks applied this term to what we would call pharmaceutical chemistry. The physicians would extract juices or infusions of plants for medicinal purposes. Now, for many centuries, chemistry and alchemy were practically interchangeable for Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and later, Europeans, well into the 16th century. And the goal was to discover or create a mythical philosopher's stone that could turn base metals into gold and silver and also act as an elixir that would magically cure all of one's ills and grant us eternal youth.
But there was also a wonderful set of philosophies attached to alchemy that would concern your own transformation into a virtuous person. And that continued all the way into the psychoanalytic writings of Carl Jung. I should mention, by the way, that the original "Harry Potter" book, the first one, in keeping with the alchemical theme, was called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." But despite its runaway success in Great Britain, the U.S. publisher changed it to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" because they believed that no American child would buy a book containing the word philosopher.
MARKEL: But later on, in the 17th century on, a great many natural philosophers and alchemists, including Robert Boyle, began to rethink the field, and they wanted to apply physical methods to study matter. And in fact, Robert Boyle wrote a 1661 treatice called "The Sceptical Chymist," and he renamed the field chemistry. And he's known for a lot of things, best known for Boyle's Law, the universally proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of gas.
And as the centuries proceeded, there was a whole host of scientific revolutionaries, you know, Lavoisier, John Dalton, many others. And they developed what we know now as modern chemistry, which is a quantitative and reproducible framework for understanding not only the composition of matter, but also how matter can change forms by means of chemical reactions.
1. Whitesides, G.M., The Improbability of Life, Fitness of the Cosmos for Life: Biochemistry and Fine Tuning, Barrows, J.D., Morris, S.C., Freeland, S.J., and Harper, C.L., Jr., Eds., Cambridge University Press, 2008.
How life originated from the inanimate mixture of organic and inorganic compounds on the priomordial earth remains one of the great unknowns in science. This origin of life, or abiogenesis, continues to be examined in the context of the conditions and materials required for natural life to have begun on Earth both theoretically and experimentally. This book provides a broad but in-depth analysis of the latest discoveries in prebiotic chemsitry from the microscopic to the macroscopic scale; utilising experimental insight to provide a bottom up approach to plausibly explaining how life arose. With contributions from global leaders, this book is an ideal reference for postgraduate students and a single source of comprehensive information on the latest technical and theoretical advancements for researchers in a variety of fields from astrochemistry and astrophysics to organic chemistry and evolution.
When we say "chemistry," we're talking about the modern, scientific study of matter and how it changes. Still, the fact that "chemistry" looks a lot like "alchemy" is not a coincidence. Early alchemists were often called "chemists," and over time, their work, especially the more legitimate parts of it, came to be called "chemistry." In many ways, it makes sense that the word for the modern study of matter comes from the ancient practice of alchemy, since early alchemists came up with many of the techniques and tools that are important to modern chemistry.
Even though the word "chemistry" comes from Egypt, it seems that people all over the world were experimenting with chemicals as early as the 5th century BC. Early alchemists in China mostly wanted to find "the elixir of life," a potion that could cure all diseases and keep people from dying. In an ironic twist, many of these early elixirs were made by mixing mercury and arsenic salts, which are both very poisonous. Several Chinese emperors are said to have died after drinking "elixirs of life". Even though early Chinese chemists never found a magic potion that could cure all diseases, they did find many new chemicals and Chemical Reactions, some of which are still used today in fireworks and gunpowder.
Modern chemistry is based on the study of these universal laws, which you will learn more about in the next section. Modern scientific laws are, of course, a little different from what Plato or Aristotle had in mind. In general, scientific laws are found through careful experimentation and observation, while the ancient Greeks thought that their "natural laws" could be found through philosophy.
The history of chemistry is fun and hard to understand. Early chemists were often most interested in getting to a certain goal or making a certain product. Making perfume and soap didn't require much theory. All you needed was a good recipe and careful attention to detail. There wasn't a standard way to call things (and no periodic table that everyone could agree on). But science has grown and changed over time.
When Robert Boyle (1637-1691) started doing research in chemistry, he made great strides toward making it a solid science. He came up with the basic ideas about how gases behave, which made it possible to describe gases mathematically. Boyle was also one of the first people to think that small particles could join together to make molecules. John Dalton built the atomic theory on these ideas from a long time ago.
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