Challenges

The great challenge in chemistry is the
development of a coherent explanation of
the complex behaviour of materials, why
they appear as they do, what gives them
their enduring properties, and how
interactions among different substances can
bring about the formation of new
substances and the destruction of old ones.
From the earliest attempts to understand
the material world in rational terms,
chemists have struggled to develop theories
of matter that satisfactorily explain both
permanence and change. The ordered
assembly of indestructible atoms into small
and large molecules, or extended networks
of intermingled atoms, is generally
accepted as the basis of permanence, while
the reorganization of atoms or molecules
into different arrangements lies behind
theories of change. Thus chemistry involves
the study of the atomic composition and
structural architecture of substances, as
well as the varied interactions among
substances that can lead to sudden, often
violent reactions.