1. THE WORLD OF ATOMS AND MOLECULES
Chemistry, around us and in us
It is difficult to imagine any manifestation of our daily life in which chemistry is not involved in any way (Balzani 20141Balzani, V. and Venturi, M. (2014) Chemistry. Reading and writing the book of nature, Cambridge: The Royal Society of Chemistry. Original edition in Italian: Balzani, V. and Venturi, M. (2012) Chimica! Leggere e scrivere il libro della natura, Trieste: Scienza Express.). Chemistry is all around us and in us. Chemistry is around us in the natural phenomena indispensable for life, such as photosynthesis, and in artificial products that are important for civilization (pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, plastic materials, semiconductors and detergents); and it is in us because the functioning (or malfunctioning) of the human body is regulated by chemical reactions.
Indeed, life is chemistry in action. Without over simplification, we can say that all the manifestations of life, including what we call cognitive categories (learning, memory, thought, experience and dreams), are ultimately the result of chemical reactions that are too complex to interpret, at least for now.