An overview of the most important discoveries in the history of chemistry, including: oxygen; the common building blocks of organic and inorganic matter; how electricity transforms chemicals; why substances change color when touched by a flame; plastics.

1. Oxygen (1770s) 2. Atomic Theory (1808) 3. Atoms Combine Into Molecules (1811 onward) 4. Synthesis of Urea (1828) 5. Chemical Structure (1850s) 6. Periodic Table of the Elements (1860s - 1870s) 7. Electricity Transforms Chemicals (1807 - 1810) 8. The Electron (1897) 9. Electrons for Chemical Bonds (1913 onward) 10. Atoms Have Signatures of Light (1850s) 11. Radioactivity (1890s û 1900s) 12. Plastics (1869 and 1900s) 13. Fullerenes (1985).