The study of carbon-based life, and the question of whether it is the only possible form of life, are subjects that our recent advances in space exploration have transformed from philosophy into experimental chemistry. Chemistry, Matter and the Universe ends with what the authors believe to be the most exciting great challenges facing chemistry: the problem of life.

In the traditional nomenclature, Chapters 1-10 would be described as inorganic chemistry, Chapters 11-17 as physical chemistry, Chapters 18-21 as organic chemistry, and chapters 22-26 as biochemistry. Although this is true in principle, we try to show that these categories overlap, and are more pedagogical than real. Chemistry should be thought of as a unified whole, and in the most general terms as a framework for explaining the world in which we live, and from which we have evolved.

January 1976

Richard E. Dickerson
Irving Geis