2 Advances in organic chemistry over the last 100 years

Abstract

This chapter attempts to cover the last century of organic chemistry, inevitably in an impressionistic way. It highlights the most important developments relating to structure and its determination, stereochemistry, synthesis, new types of molecule that do not occur in nature, a limited selection of natural products, the rise of theoretical organic chemistry and the role of free radicals. The discussion opens with a state-of-the-art picture for 1904 (when Annual Reports made its first appearance) and concludes with some reflections on the position today, particularly in relation to the place of organic chemistry within science as a whole.