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!.7WdLd240M 08/30/11(Tue)12:50 No.29207373>>29207042
In the 18th century, Chemists felt there was an important difference between the chemicals that made up non-living things like rocks (limestone being among them) and living things. Made sense, right? Living things were made by god. They had to be special. They called the living chemicals organic, and of course the rocks were inorganic.
Then in the early 19th century, this was debunked by a chemist named Woehler. He made urine, one of those special living organic chemicals, from inorganic substances. Actually, if you want to go back to the original starting material, it came from carbonate. Also, think for a moment where calcium carbonate comes from.
In modern organic chemistry, anything with carbon is considered organic. Including carbonate. Now, I know that older textbooks, or textbooks written by non-chemists doesn't always teach that, especially the one Small Waves referred to in that stream. Pedagogy is slow to catch up on modern science.
But come on. This is 19th century chemistry we're talking about. There's really no excuse. |
