Why learn about chemistry?

You may have heard the phrase “carbon-based life” when people discuss life on earth. Carbon is an element—one of the basic substances everything is made up of—but, what does it mean to say life is “carbon-based”?

In order to understand this concept, we’ll need to understand more about elements, which means learning about chemistry. While chemistry is a separate field, its principles form the basis of biology. As you learned in the last chapter, all living things demonstrate hierarchical organization. You cannot truly understand the higher levels of organization (such as organisms or ecosystems) without understanding their component parts (like cells, molecules, and atoms).

Professionals who use this chemistry in their daily work include nutritionists, healthcare workers (especially when prescribing and administering medications), geneticists, and pharmacologists.