When most people think of chemistry, they think of lab coats, Bunsen burners, and the cryptic periodic table. They don't usually think of history. But chemistry has a fascinating story to tell.

Molecular Milestones
From fireworks and flamethrowers to understanding oxygen and fueling cars Molecular Milestones is your window on the often weird world of chemistry from ancient times to the new millennium. Its surprising to know that fluoride treatment began with brown teeth in Colorado Springs more than 100 years ago, that the British almost lost World War 2 because they stole seeds from Brazil in 1876 and Alchemists did lay the foundations of experimental science though did not succeed in turning base metals into gold.

Ancients & Alchemists
The alchemists are often associated with the occult- but much of what they did was real science.

Matter & Molecules
Achievements of the chemical and molecular sciences from the 18th century to today, including the discovery of oxygen, the uncovering of the DNA double helix and the contributions of Lavoisier,Mendeleev, and Pauling.

Chemistry of Life
Organic chemistry, biochemistry, photosynthesis, pharmaceuticals, genetics, diseases and more.

Polymers: Molecular Giants
If you’ve heard of nylon, rayon, vinyl, Teflon, or Tupperware, then you’ve heard of polymers. Discover the people and science behind these "macromolecules."

NEW! Nanotechnology: Nanoscale science, engineering, and technology can be characterized as sets of fundamental knowledge and enabling technologies derived from efforts to understand and control the properties and function of matter at the nanoscale dimension— that is, at a scale on the order of one-billionth of a meter, or approximately 1/100,000th of the width of a strand of human hair.

Gold nanoparticles have a long history–from stained glass in the 15th century to cutting-edge research in curing cancer. Talk about a precious metal!

First-known nano application: Stained glass
Without understanding the underlying theory, artists in the 18th century used gold and silver particles to make red and yellow stained glass.

1860s: Carbon black nanoparticles used
A descendent of lampblack first produced by the Chinese more than 3500 years ago, carbon black is one of the oldest nano-sized particles used by humans.

1938: Invisible glass invented
Irving Langmuir and Katherine Blodgett were pioneering General Electric research scientists. Together they invented Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) film by placing one-molecule-thick barium stearate films on top of each other to create a coating that could be applied to solid surfaces such as metal or glass.

1955: Individual atoms imaged
In 1951 the academic journal Zeitschrift für Physik published an article by Erwin Mueller, then a professor at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute in Germany, that described an instrument called a field ion microscope (FIM).

1960: Nano research wins a Nobel
Classical, or conventional, physics teaches us that an object cannot get from point A to point B if there is a barrier between the points. But what if it can? 

At the atomic level, where quantum physics takes over, electrons can indeed “tunnel” through from one side of a barrier to the other. In 1958 Leo Esaki, then at Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (now Sony Corporation), demonstrated that tunneling through semiconductors (materials that have conductivity between a conductor and an insulator) was possible.

1977: Nano research scales up
A proposal to the National Science Foundation for a National Research and Resources Facility for Submicron Structures and its subsequent establishment at Cornell University spurred the construction of other nanotechnology research centers.

1981: IBM's Scanning Tunneling Microscope

The first scanning tunneling microscope was invented in 1981 by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer of IBM's Zurich Lab in Switzerland. Scanning tunneling microscopes use the quantum mechanics principle of electron tunneling to scan a conductive sample’s surface.

1979: Precision molecules discovered
Traditionally polymers are long and chaotic, and their manufacturing process yields molecules in an unpredictable range of sizes. Dendrimers, however, are a special type of polymer that can be grown in a precise manner. Because each successive generation is grown symmetrically based from an older branch, it’s possible to design and control the shape of the dendrimer as it is being produced.

1985: Bucking conventions
Composed of 60 carbon atoms, buckyballs resemble a union of two geodesic domes, a shape made famous by the architect R. Buckminster Fuller.

2000: Nano in the 21st Century
The quest to obtain major government funding for nanotechnology spanned almost a decade and two presidencies. Members of several federal agencies began meeting informally in the winter of 1996 to better coordinate nanoscale scientific research on a federal level. Two years later, the team was officially recognized as the Interagency Working Group on Nanotechnology, and its purpose was outlined: to conduct workshops and studies to define the state of the art in nanoscale science and technology and to forecast possible future developments.

Recent achievements in nanotechnology funded in whole or in part by the NNI include quantum dots, nano-electro-mechanical sensors, nanocomposite energetic materials, prototype molecular electronics data storage devices, and nanoparticles for water contaminant removal.