Chemistry is defined as “the study of the composition, structure and properties of matter, the processes that matter undergoes and the energetic changes that accompany these processes » (Davis 3). Chemistry has been around since the dawn of time, long before humans realized what chemistry was and its importance. Earth's building blocks, such as soil minerals and atmospheric gases, all come from chemical elements. Natural resources are all chemical substances or chemical compounds, and the study of these resources is the origin of the chemical revolution of the 18th century. Today, chemists are still working hard to try to understand the reactions of the universe. Chemistry is a timeless field of study and will continue to be so long into the future. It is difficult to define an era “before” chemistry. Chemistry has been a part of people's lives since the creation of humanity, even though people did not understand the concepts of chemistry itself. For example, early people extracted metals from ores, fermented beer and wine, and made medicines and perfumes from plants. Even without a formal definition of chemistry, humans practiced the subject. In the late 18th century, the Chemical Revolution took place, defining chemistry as a science distinct from alchemy, the dominant "science" before the 1700s. Robert Boyle is considered one of the forerunners of chemistry. He discovered that the volume of a gas decreases with increasing pressure and vice versa (Boyle's law). Antione-Laurent Lavoisier, another major thinker of the chemical revolution, gave society a new understanding of the chemical role of gases in explaining combustion, respiration, and other processes. These eminent scientists and their predecessors made Chemis...... middle of paper ......e the very food we eat. Already, chemicals are being introduced into animals to make them bigger and into vegetables to make them healthier. These measures make food cheap and feed more people. With the number of people living on Earth increasing, it is likely that chemistry will help feed a growing population. Almost all processes on Earth are governed by chemistry and chemical reactions. Processes in our bodies, gas exchange in the atmosphere, and the breakdown of matter are just small examples of the many things chemistry does in our daily lives. Natural resources, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and water, fuel many of these chemical reactions. Chemistry has been around since the dawn of time, even back when people didn't really know what chemistry was, and it will continue to shape people's lives in the future. Chemistry can still teach us much more.