The history of the modern chemical enterprise begins in processes and products that formed the foundation of the industrial revolution. Its processes have harnessed the innermost structures of nature, becoming the means to make and manipulate the world. Its products have served a myriad of uses. From oil and petrochemicals, to the vast parade of inorganics, to the most modern medicinals and biotechnologicals, the chemical industry has created the framework of our civilization. For the past two centuries, the processes and products of the chemical enterprise have been fundamental in making the world what it is today.

From time immemorial, the five human senses were the only window humanity had on the world. But with the development of scientific instruments, from the earliest prism to the most modern spectroscope, the hidden world of nature became ever more accessible. Today, these instruments are such an integral part of modern reality that it would be incomprehensible to live and work without them. To many, these are no longer just the tools of science, but the very definition of science—the only true means of knowing and understanding the world.