Editing Chemist (section)

==History of chemistry==
{{main|History of chemistry}}

[[File:Georgius Agricola.jpg|thumb|German chemist [[Georgius Agricola]] (1494–1555) was the first to drop the Arabic definite article ''al-'', exclusively writing ''chymia'' and ''chymista'' in describing activity that we today would characterize as chemical or alchemical.]]

[[File:Medeleeff by repin.jpg|thumb|Russian chemist [[Dmitri Mendeleev]], author of the first modern [[periodic table of elements]]]]
[[File:David - Portrait of Monsieur Lavoisier (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|[[Antoine Lavoisier]] (1743–94) is considered the "[[List of people considered father or mother of a scientific field#Chemistry|Father of Modern Chemistry]]".]]

The roots of chemistry can be traced to the phenomenon of [[combustion|burning]]. [[Fire]] was a mystical force that transformed one substance into another and thus was of primary interest to mankind. It was fire that led to the [[Discovery (observation)|discovery]] of [[iron]] and [[glass]]es.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} After [[gold]] was discovered and became a precious metal, many people were interested to find a method that could convert other substances into gold. This led to the [[protoscience]] called [[alchemy]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} The word ''chemist'' is derived from the [[Neo-Latin]] noun ''chimista'', an abbreviation of ''alchimista'' ([[Alchemy|alchemist]]). Alchemists discovered many [[chemical process]]es that led to the development of modern chemistry. {{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Chemistry as we know it today, was invented by [[Antoine Lavoisier]] with his law of [[conservation of mass]] in 1783.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} The [[discoveries of the chemical elements]] has a long history culminating in the creation of the [[periodic table]] by [[Dmitri Mendeleev]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=PubChem |title=Periodic Table of Elements |url=https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/periodic-table/ |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |language=en}}</ref> The [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] created in 1901 gives an excellent overview of chemical discovery since the start of the 20th century.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

At the Washington Academy of Sciences during [[World War I]], it was said that the side with the best chemists would win the war.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Harrow | first=Benjamin | title=The Chemists of America | journal=The Scientific Monthly | publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science | volume=7 | issue=4 | year=1918 | issn=0096-3771 | jstor=7047 | pages=356–360 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/7047 }}</ref>