Crash Course Organic Chemistry

Introduction

• Presenter: Deboki Chakravarti
• Focus: Chemistry of carbon, its structures, and reactions of carbon-containing compounds
• Complexity: Notorious for being complicated due to diverse organic compounds
• Relevance: Includes everyday items (caffeine in tea, circuitry in cell phones)
• Fact: Over 16 million known organic molecules

Presenter Background

• Name: Deboki Chakravarti
• Education: Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering
• Experience: 7 years in cancer-fighting immune cells research
• Current Role: Science writer/communicator
• Passion: Loves explaining science and organic chemistry

Course Structure

Part 1: Tools of Organic Chemistry

• Key Concepts: Bonding, structure, naming molecules
• Example Molecule: Cholesterol
• Approach: Observations, experiments, proposing theories
• Learning Outcomes: Understand chemical and physical properties of molecules

Building Molecules

• From: Small molecules (like ethanol)
• To: Macromolecules (like high-density polyethylene)
• Reactions Covered: Elimination, substitution, pericyclic reactions

Practice

• Importance: Necessary for mastering concepts

Part 2: Multi-step Synthesis

• Focus: Larger molecules and pharmaceutical applications
• Key Drug: Penicillin and its role in infection control
• Industry Insight: Developments in the pharmaceutical industry
• Relevance: Essential for understanding health, medicine, and biochemistry

Final Thoughts

• Challenges: Organic chemistry can be complicated
• Goal: Make sense of the chaos, have fun learning
• Preparation Tip: Rewatch Episode 24 of the general chemistry series on Lewis Structures