h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I understand that the subdivision into organic (i.e. originating from living stuff) and inorganic (the rest) chemistry is
an anachronism, that somehow managed to survive to this century. Modern scientists no longer use this subdivision.
As stated, silicon based compounds have been added to the "organic" chemistry domain. You can go farther and add
all kinds of compounds that build covalent molecules (NOT solids, salts, complexes...) to that domain. Instead you
add the "classic" carbon-based "organic" chemistry to this new (bigger) group, and call it molecular or molecule chemistry.

This process (i.e. the new subdivision) has not yet been fully finished.

Somehow I'd like this information to be included in the "topic".

Greetings,

HELL

Actually we still do have separate inorganic and organic departments although the edhges are blurred.

Yeah we do. I still think of myself as an Organic chemist but my boss likes calling us "chemical biologists" or some other trendy word to make it sound more modern and appealing.

Nice try, but you can't distinguish between molecules and salts consistently: Who gets sodium methanoate - is it the same category as methanoic acid or does it go with sodium hydrogencarbonate? I guess that although the categories are useful they do look silly close up.

As for the old meaning of organic as 'living' I must mention the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry - what would the first chemists have made of that?

"I still think of myself as an Organic chemist but my boss likes calling us "chemical biologists""

So what about biochemists, eh?