Chemistry Today (A Book to Celebrate the International Year of Chemistry)

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C.N.R. Rao is the National Research Professor, Linus Pauling Research Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) and honrary professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He is an author of 1400 research papers and has written or edited 43 books dealing with spectroscopy, solid state and materials chemistry, superconductivity, nanomaterials and such topics. Some of his books are meant for school and college students. He has received 48 honorary doctorate degrees from Indian and foreign universities. He is member of most of the major science academies including the Royal Society (London) and U.S. National Academy of Sciences, as well as French, Japan and Pontifical Academies.

C.N.R. Rao has received numerous prizes and medals of which mention must be made of the Marlow medal of the Faraday Society (1967), Bhatnagar Prize (1968), Einstein gold medal of UNESCO (1996), Hughes medal (2000) as well as the Royal medal (2009) of the Royal Scoeity (London). He is the first recipient of the India Science Award of the Government of India (2005) and received the Dan David Prize for science in the future dimension in 2005 for his work on advanced materials. The August-Wilhelm-von-Hoffmann Medal (2010) has just been conferred by the German Chemical Society.

He was conferred the Order of Scientific Merit (Grand-Cross) in 2002 by the President of Brazil, and the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur by the President of France in 2005. He has been a distinguished professor at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and California. He was President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

Human beings started making use of chemistry several centuries ago, but the early practitioners did not know how and why things happened. Excellent chemical research was carried out during the 1 and 19 centuries, Lavoisier, Faraday and Dalton being prominent names from that era. The very first compound in chemistry was synthesized in 1828. Modern chemistry is, however, a 20" century subject, since it is in this century that we got to know of all the elements in the periodic table. It is early in the 20" century that the idea of the chemical bond was proposed. Chemistry has blossomed since then, over the last 100 years. We have many compounds and structures and we have also developed new ways of thinking about matter and life. Chemical thinking has influenced biology, materials science and other areas. The subject is growing continually and has fascinated many people. Those who have been attracted by chemistry have become worshippers of the subject. Those who have properly understood how chemistry works have become pioneers and architects of science. Good chemists generally possess a kind of intuition based on logic and creativity. This unusual attribute called chemical intuition is based on facts and theories, and contains an element which is somewhat difficult to explain to those who know little chemistry. This booklet tries to show how chemistry has progressed over the years, and highlights major developments in this extraordinary subject.

**Contents and Sample Pages**