A little (alchemy and) chemistry and related sciences for humanities students 3700-AL-SANPH1-OG

(1) The humanities vs. the natural and exact sciences. Chemistry’s hierarchic structure and its place in the science pyramid. Scientific revolutions. Important questions and unanswered questions. The morality of science. (2) The emergence of the Universe as we know it. The birth of atoms. How the Solar System came into being. The origins of chemical elements. (3) The atom and the indivisibility of particles of matter. Models of the atom. Democritus and Dalton. What do atoms “look like” and how big are they? (4) The Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. One discoverer or many? Why do we need the Periodic Table? (5) Chemical molecules. What are chemical bonds? Chemistry’s mission. Self-organization. Aesthetics of chemistry. Symmetry. Astrochemistry. (6) Chemistry of life. Chemical composition of the Universe, the earth’s crust and living organisms. Why carbon? The emergence of life. Ionizing radiation. (7) Evolution of matter continued. Homo sapiens. “Blood ties”. Mitochondrial and chromosomal DNA. The emergence of science and religion. (8) The history of civilization as the history of the development of materials chemistry and military science. The stone, copper, bronze, iron, gunpowder, coal and water, and silicon ages. Chemistry’s culture-building role. (9) Alchemy as the art of transformation. Holism. “Elements”, planets, stones, symbols, numbers. Alchemy as a “column of the heavens”. Magical numbers in the past and in contemporary chemistry. (10) Chemistry of the brain. Endorphins – happy hormones. Neurotransmitters. Melatonin – sleep hormone. Oxytocin. (11) Chemistry of love. Proteins in kisses. Molecular signalling and identification. When did the sexes emerge? Body revolution – sex hormones. Cholesterol and pheromones. “Chemistry’s sex-mission”. (12) Alcoholic fermentation and delirium tremens. Water, methanol, ethanol. Alkaloids and dosed poisons. Narcotics and antidepressants. (13) Chemistry and the Polish cause. Polish chemistry and chemistry in Poland. Einstein’s grandchildren. Chemistry as a “fulfilled science”. Nobel Prizes for Great Theories. The explosion of synthetic chemistry. (14) The world 13.798 ± 0.037 billion years after the Big Bang (and shortly before the Big Collapse?). Science as a language. Antinomies. Ockham’s razor. Demythologization and desacralization of matter and life. The terror of science and “loss of ties with the masses”. The crisis of the human psyche in the 20th century. The sinusoid of history and New Romanticism. (15) Practical illustration of lectures 6, 8, 9 and 11.

The estimated total number of hours students will have to devote to achieve the learning outcomes planned for the course: 45 h (including 30 organized hours, 1 exam hour, 14 hours of individual work).