Throughout history, many great discoveries have been made either by accident or someone searching for the way that something works. Some of these discoveries are more important than others, but they are all important nonetheless. Some are in the field of chemistry while others have a basis in chemistry and they also combine ideas from physics and other sciences.

While most people do not give a second thought to the basic chemical elements, they are actually the building blocks of life and just about everything that we know. From breathing to medicines and everything else that we encounter in our daily life, chemical elements play a major role. Here are some of the more useful and best chemical elements that exist today and make the world into how we know it.

For the most part, scientists get into their careers to do research that will contribute to society. They look for ways to make life better, improve on things that already exist, and find information that will help future generations. But there are some scientific inventions that have been used for destructive purposes. Here are some of those inventions and the stories behind them.

The field of chemistry is basically categorized into five main branches with the other types of chemistry typically falling into one of these branches. Here is a list of those five main categories with an explanation of what each one studies and other types of chemistry that fall into each branch.