Hydrocarbon Power! - Crash Course Chemistry #40
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You've heard this before, but it bears repeating. Carbon is the element of life. So much so that when we explore other planets the first thing we look for is compounds that contain carbon. In fact, there was a time when we thought carbon compounds could only be produced by living things. So early chemists called them, as we still do today organic compounds. Scientists back then considered biological molecules to be almost mystical in origin. Until, 1828 when German chemist Friedrich Wöhler discovered that urea, a component of urine, could be synthesized simply by heating ammonium cyanate, an inorganic compound. That proved biological molecules were just chemicals that could be created and manipulated in the lab. Suddenly a new branch of chemistry was ...
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You've heard this before, but it bears repeating. Carbon is the element of life. So much so that when we explore other planets the first thing we look for is compounds that contain carbon. In fact, there was a time when we thought carbon compounds could only be produced by living things. So early chemists called them, as we still do today organic compounds. Scientists back then considered biological molecules to be almost mystical in origin. Until, 1828 when German chemist Friedrich Wöhler discovered that urea, a component of urine, could be synthesized simply by heating ammonium cyanate, an inorganic compound. That proved biological molecules were just chemicals that could be created and manipulated in the lab. Suddenly a new branch of chemistry was ...
