Everything about The Central Science totally explained
Chemistry is often called
the central science because of its role in connecting “
hard sciences” such as
physics with the “
soft sciences” such as
biology,
medicine, and the
earth sciences.. The nature of this relationship is one of the main topics in the
philosophy of chemistry and in
scientometrics. The phrase was popularized by its use in a textbook by Theodore L. Brown, titled
Chemistry: The Central Science, which was first published in 1977, with a tenth edition published in 2005.
The central role of chemistry can be seen in the systematic and hierarchical classification of the sciences by
Auguste Comte in which each dislipline provides a more general framework for the area it precedes (mathematics → astronomy → physics → chemistry → physiology and medicine → social sciences). Balaban and Klein have more recently proposed a diagram showing partial ordering of sciences in which chemistry may be argued is “the central science” since it provides a significant degree of branching. In forming these connections it's important to note that the lower field
cannot be fully reduced to the higher ones. It is recognized that the lower fields possess
emergent ideas and concepts that don't exist in the higher fields of science.
Thus chemistry is built on an understanding of laws of physics that govern particles such as
atoms,
protons,
electrons,
thermodynamics, etc. although it has been argued that it can't be “fully 'reduced' to
quantum mechanics”. Concepts such as the
periodicity of the elements and
chemical bonds in chemistry are emergent in that they're more than the underlying forces that are defined by physics.
In the same way biology can't be fully reduced to chemistry despite the fact that the machinery that's responsible for life is composed of
molecules. For instance, the machinery of
evolution may be described in terms chemistry by the understanding that it's a
mutation in the order of
genetic base pairs in the
DNA of an organism. However chemistry can't fully describe the process since it doesn't contain concepts, such as
natural selection that are responsible for driving evolution. Chemistry is fundamental to biology since it provides methodology to study and understand the molecules that compose cells.
Connections made by chemistry are formed through various sub-disciplines that utilize concepts from multiple scientific disciplines. Chemistry and physics are both needed in the areas of
physical chemistry,
nuclear chemistry, and
theoretical chemistry. Chemistry and biology intersect in the areas of
biochemistry,
medicinal chemistry,
molecular biology,
chemical biology,
molecular genetics, and
immunochemistry. Chemistry and the earth sciences intersect in areas like
geochemistry and
hydrology.
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