Would We Have Chemistry without Marvelous Metals?

Abstract

The American Chemical Society's 2019 National Chemical Week theme is Marvelous Metals, a fitting choice in the UNESCO 2019 International Year of the Periodic Table. This editorial discusses how metals exemplify much of what we think about when we consider chemistry. Metals were the first elements to be recognized as something distinct and fundamental, providing us with a link to the world of nature through the building blocks, the elements, that chemists recognize as the most important forms of matter. Metals were also at the heart of the emergence of chemistry as a science, illustrated by reports from Lavoisier and Faraday.