The Birth of Chemistry

The Birth of Chemistry

It is also important to note that the Molecular Epoch gave us the birth of a new science: Chemistry. Chemistry, at its heart, is the study of matter and how it combines, interacts, and changes. Before the Molecular Age, we had no such interaction.

Well, for science enthusiasts, this is mostly true. Like many Complexification events, there was some overlap. It is more accurate to say molecular chemistry didn’t exist. However, there were some changes of matter going on at the atomic scale before molecules existed.

Remember those stars we mentioned that were creating elements? When those stars lit up at birth, the hydrogen it contained was under such pressure and heat that it started a nuclear fusion reaction. Hydrogen would get crushed into a reaction that formed helium from the hydrogen. That, in turn, would be further processed to make an element called beryllium, and so on. Eventually, by the end of the star’s life, it would be all the way up to creating iron.

But chemistry as we know it, with its endless arrays of molecules with their special properties that we use every day, would not come into its own until molecules started forming.

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So, does the Molecular Epoch fulfill the requirements for Complexification?

Did it create something fundamentally new? Yes. As atoms combined, they created entirely new types of matter. It also gave us the mature, full science of chemistry.

profound way? Yes. We were no longer constrained to the 118 elements of the periodic table in how diverse and complex the universe could be. Atoms could now interact and bond with one another in ever-increasing complexity.

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