Organic chemists at work at Denison and around the world. Chemical Abstracts Service whose offices are located about 45 minutes away in Columbus, has recently recorded its 20 millionth substance . Most of those 20 million different materials are the result of efforts by organic chemists.
Organic chemists work with molecules big and small.
There is an excellent website at the University of Southern Mississippi for learning about polymers, examples of the big molecules we work with. The Molecules of the Month feature provided by chemists at Oxford University describes some interesting examples of small molecules that have become quite important. Spectroscopy has transformed the practice of organic chemistry. A database developed in Japan illustrates the kind of information that is now available. Spectroscopy yields important information about the materials we work with quickly and often requires only very small amounts of material.