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Beyond the Molecular Frontier Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (2003) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Structures and Cultures of the Disciplines: The Common Chemical Bond
Pages 16-21

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From page 16...
... The aims of these subdisciplines must be understood as part of the overall picture of the present and the future of our field.
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From page 17...
... Chemists want to discover the components of the chemical universe from atoms and molecules to organized chemical systems such as materials, devices, living cells, and whole organisms and they also want to understand how these components interact and change as a function of time. However, chemical scientists consider not just the components of the chemical universe that already exist; they also coniThe formal origin of chemical engineering as a discipline is considered to date to 1888 when it was introduced as an option in the chemistry department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Frontiers in Chemical Engineering: Research Needs and Opportunities, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1988, p.
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From page 18...
... Chemical scientists seek to fully understand the detailed mechanisms of these transformations, and to measure the rates of reactions, and to build predictive models of reaction sequences and networks for process design and control. As part of the overall goal, chemical scientists also want to understand the biological properties of both natural and man-made substances.
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From page 19...
... Chemical engineering emerged from applied chemistry by introducing an organized approach to the design of chemical process systems for manufacturing chemical products. The paradigm of unit operationsthe individual steps of an overall process characterized chemical engineering in the first half of the 20th century.
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From page 20...
... Fundamental chemical research began to overlap with and penetrate chemical engineering to an unprecedented extent. This has been characteristic for interdisciplinary fields such as polymers, catalysis, electronic materials synthesis and processing, biological science and engineering, pharmacology and drug delivery, nanoscale science and engineering, and computational science and engineering.
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From page 21...
... When taken together, the factors introduced in this chapter explain the motivation and rationale for this integrated report on challenges facing the chemical sciences, chemistry and chemical engineering. The chemical sciences will unlock our ability to understand the mysteries of our world from new synthesis and catalysis to life itself.
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