Lift up your eyes. Except for glass (inorganic chemistry), it is unlikely that you can see anything that is uninfluenced by organic chemistry. Even the metal and concrete you see probably have been painted and waterproofed.
Chemistry, especially the organic variety, is of immense economic and biological importance, so much so that chemistry may well be justified in describing itself as the central science. You might well expect that this importance, this wider relevance, would be apparent in the textbooks from which the subject is taught.
You would be wrong. One organic chemistry text "Advanced Organic Chemistry," Third Edition by I. March, dominates the university scene on both sides of the Atlantic. You can read this book from page 1 through page 1,300 without finding a hint that its subject is of economic importance. The only clue that organic chemistry is relevant to biology is found in the preface, it ...
