author : Ron B. Davis Jr

This is the course guidebook that accompanies the 36 lecture “Great Course” of the same name. It is essentially an abbreviated transcript of each lecture, a few pictures, and some related reading. (I watched the lectures, which is what I am reviewing here, and am using the book simply as an aide-memoire.)

It is over 40 years since I last studied organic chemistry, and I did not enjoy it. I have more recently been working with an academic chemist of artificial chemistries (AChems), computational systems that combine and grow, inspired by chemical bonding, and hopefully exhibiting similar combinatorial complexity. Maybe it is time to look at the underlying subject afresh? Hence, watching this course.

I enjoyed it a lot more this time round. There’s an enormous amount packed into the 18 hours total of material: carbon and hydro-carbons, carbon plus oxygen, carbon plus nitrogen, carbon plus oxygen and nitrogen; DNA and proteins; single, double and triple bonding properties; 3d geometry, reactions and functional groups; many kinds of spectroscopy and forms of purification. In all cases, the underlying mechanisms are clearly explained – even four lecture on purification techniques were made interesting due to the different chemistry underlying each.

Not everything was interesting: I could have done with less on IUPAC naming conventions, and some of the many reaction descriptions felt like “stamp collecting”, but overall, a very good course covering a great breadth of material. And it has given me some ideas for my AChem work.