Looking at chemistry, Chemistry has been one of the three main branches of science since the world began. It is usually the first thing many people picture in their minds when they hear the word, ‘’scientist’’. Chemistry as a branch of pure science, is divided into so many branches. Industrial chemistry, applied chemistry, analytical chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, chemical physics, radioactive chemistry, etc etc
![atom scanned.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmP6DqGhwaToUbz65sEF64eQy3HMzHuGehQChsbL4zPLDW/atom%20scanned.png)
The effect the study of chemistry has had on our lives cannot be over exerted. 

Concepts such as how to purify things, like drugs and water, concepts such as the behavior and properties of man elements you use today, can all be traced to chemistry.

For sure, hand in hand, chemistry works with physics and biology to provide the bedrock of basically all things we know today.

You could say engineering is the study of physics and chemistry in different ratios and proportions, that is how I personally like to view it anyway.

Since this is an education post, I thought to talk about the atomic structure.

Now a physics student will probably know a little about the atom, but its left for us chemistry peeps to properly explain why this unbelievably  little thing, is the most important concept in the universe.

# Atoms are life
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/wm/live/1280_640/images/live/p0/38/jf/p038jf6n.jpg
[imagelink](http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151120-how-do-we-know-that-things-are-really-made-of-atoms)
Literally speaking, one could take atoms to be life. Many schools in the old days taught that the atom was the smallest indivisible unit of all elements. Infact, John Dalton published a book on an atomic theory in 1808 stating a bunch of things about the properties of atoms.
One of the most iconic things he said was that atoms were indivisible.

These days, we know that the atom is indeed divisible. Infact, the atom can be divided into the proton, neutron and electron.

The proton being the positively charged particle, the neutron being neutral, and the electron being negatively charged.

If you attended chemistry class in school, you'll probably be very familiar about the concept of ions. 

Ions are positively or negatively charged atoms. They are like that because they have lost or gained one electrons.

Like I said in the beginning, atoms are life. This is true if you look at atoms not from the sense of chemistry, but as building blocks.

Everything, your iphone, your book, your body, your water, the planet, whatever you can think of consists of thousands, millions, billions, unquantifiable number of atoms.

The atom is the basic building block of life, that is how I define it. 

For those who studied biology, you may feel that the cell is the smallest unit of life, but even that cell is likely made up of millions of atoms.

If you can picture the cell as plane in the air, then the atom is like the grain of sand your shoe brought into the plane. That is the scale of an atom to a cell.

# History has been bad with the atom

The first error that was made seems to be in the name itself. The word atom, comes from the word ''atomos'' which is a Greek word for indivisible. But we all know from basic chemistry that the atom can be divided, and those 3 sub particles can themselves be divided into smaller units called quarks.

> *A quark is a tiny particle which makes up protons and neutrons. ... After the invention of the particle accelerator, it was discovered that electrons are fundamental particles, but neutrons and protons are not. Neutrons and protons are made up of quarks, which are held together by Gluons. There are six types of quarks.*
[Quarks wiki](https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark)

Maybe we should talk about the different models of the atom that hs been proposed?
There was once a time when the general thought was that the ''atom'' in a sense was made up of negatively flowing fields of particles, this field was later thought known to be electrons.This discovery was made by J.J Thomson

Further research found out that the the atom on a good day was electrically neutral, since everything in the universe was tending towards a state of stability. This lead to the discovery of the protons by J.J Thomson using a cathode ray tube.

The model of the atom was then thought to be a sphere of positively charged matter in which negatively charged electrons where present, a sort of ''plum-pudding'' studded with currants.

Rutherford supervising some scientists called Geiger and Marsden  made experiments by firing alpha particles at a gold foil. The alpha particles were observed to pass through most of the time, except on certain conditions, some alpha particles even reflected backward. 

The conclusion led to a new model of the atom. One in which the total mass off the atom was concentrated around a center, with few particles orbiting said center.

currently, the atom is thought of as a field-cloud that is largely empty, except with electrons flowing around, while the mass of the atom is concentrated at the center of the field.
http://jackconnorchemproject.weebly.com/uploads/4/4/8/8/44880037/1528742.jpg?1420149543
[image link](https://jackconnorchemproject.weebly.com/the-evolution-of-the-atom.html)

# An atomic look at chemistry.


If I were to go in-depth into certain concepts such as what quarks are, energy level, equilibrium constant, quantum physics and such starts to meld with chemistry to form a new branch of science that is  really new.  We begin to study the universe and how it works etc

For now though, I hang my pen on chemistry, next time, I speak on chemical properties of certain compounds and elements.

I hope someone learnt something, im kind of a jack of trades person, but i do know chemistry.

***
Some references
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_orbital_theory

http://amasci.com/miscon/eleca.html

[model of the atom](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-currently-accepted-model-of-atomic-structure-Is-there-a-more-recent-model-than-the-Bohr-or-Bohr-Sommerfeld-that-has-been-observed-by-physicists)

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151120-how-do-we-know-that-things-are-really-made-of-atoms