organic chemistry

Originally chemists used the term 'organic chemistry' to describe the study of substances derived from plants or animals. Such substances included urea from urine, citric acid from fruits or lactic acid from milk. Any substance that did not occur naturally in a plant or an animal was considered to be inorganic. In 1815 it was even proposed that the difference between organic and inorganic chemicals was the existance of some 'vital force' that was required to create an organic chemical. However in 1828 a German chemist challenged this theory by heating ammonia cyanate to dryness and creating urea. Later, in 1845 the theory was completely disproved when Kolbe prepared acetic acid from its basic constituants: carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.

Today organic chemistry is essentially the study of carbon bonding (excluding metal carbonates, hydrogencarbonates and the oxides of carbon). The number of carbon-based compounds is greater than the sum of all other known compounds that do not contain carbon! A few million carbon compounds have been prepared and isolated, so it is convenient to examine this large group of compounds as a seperate field of study.

For me, probably the hardest aspect of organic chemistry is the naming process (See A guide to naming organic compounds (I'm about to write that one up)). Seeing as there are a few million carbon compounds known to man, we can't name the compounds after the person that discovered them, there has to be a system.

Organic chemistry is one of the less interesting fields of chemistry IMHO. There are, however, some interesting aspects of it. buckyballs and carbon nanotubes are some of the first interesting aspects, but it is also seeming that molecular biology and nanotechnology are coming together.

Organic chemistry could prove to save this dying planet.

Organic chemistry will introduce concepts such as infrared spectroscopy and grignard reactions. Even though, this course is taught as a prerequisite to medical school admission, upon interviewing many medical school students, the course is seen as a form of hazing or a way to weed out the students that are in the track only to become rich. Furthermore, the course is seen as unnecessary and barbaric by some standards of medical school students.

Don't let them fool you:

Organic Chemistry is a fucking dick.

I have never a) studied this much for a class, b) put off studying in a class, c) stressed this much for a class, d) cared so little about the actual knowledge gained in a class. Simultaneously.

That last point is the one that hurts me the most. I love science -- always have, always will. And this course just...wants me to curl Science up into a tiny little wad and hurl it with blinding speed at the nearest Sun.

It is hard, but it isn't brain-stretching hard like I'm sure quantum mechanics is. It is boring hard, banal hard. It is the memorization and application of hundreds of little reactions, many of which have unique reaction pathways that must also be memorized. Some people soak this up like water. They look forward to using all this knowledge, selecting which reagents to use in a multi-step synthesis with the precision of a master painter in front of a fresh canvas.

Myself, I can respect and understand these people. I love puzzles; I love tinkering with them; I love breaking them; I love solving them.

I cannot love Organic Chemistry.

Too much rides on this class. Medical school, if I end up going there, takes a big-ass look at your Orgo grade. And I'm doing fine; A-/B+ or so. But the overwhelming stress, the importance to succeed, is a weight that you feel pressing down on your chest. Always.

Too much of this class is brute-force. You can have done Orgo workouts for months, solved incredibly complex syntheses that would stump your Prof, and if you confuse a few reagents during the exam...well...you're absolutely hosed. Physics, at least, while a touch difficult for me, was all analysis and application. This ain't it.

If you're suffering through it -- study hard, study evenly. I'm off, again, myself.

I recognize the absurdly amazing benefits that Organic Chemistry, as all science, has gifted to our society. Glues and polyester, spacecraft and plastics, paint, bombs, drugs -- it's all orgo. I can appreciate it and respect it...but oh God, can I not do it!

Carboxylic Acid Derivatives? Again? Oh, Honey, you shouldn't have!