Can there be Life without Chemistry

Life can be defined as a quality that distinguishes two forms of matter; One form of matter constitutes different biological processes, like signaling and self-sustaining processes, along with the ability of grow, reproduction, response to any stimuli and metabolic system etc. and Other form of matter mostly defines those things that do not show any sign of aliveness, don’t move, do not grow and mostly are inorganic [1, 2] . There are various forms of life that exist for example living organisms like humans, plants, animals, and micro-organisms like bacteria, fungi, etc. In all these life forms, a cell is the smallest most basic structural and functional unit of life. One of the scientists, Robert Hooke, discovered the cell for first time in 1665. After many discoveries, scientists managed to form a cell theory for all the living organisms. 3 principles of this theory are:

1. All living organisms are made up of single or more cells.

2. Cells are the basic building units of life.

3. New cells are made from pre-existing cells

All cells are composed of the same major molecules like carbon containing (organic) molecules including nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids and inorganic molecules like Water, inorganic ions etc. These organic and inorganic molecules are further made up of atoms that are bonded together.

Chemistry is a term used for the scientific study of the properties and reactions, composition and behavior of matter [6] , structure of substances (elements, molecules, and compounds) and energy transformations [7-9] . In fact chemistry deals the elements that are important constituents of matter and compounds which are made up of atoms, molecules and ions [9] . Chemistry is all around us, so we cannot say that Chemistry is only limited to work in laboratories with beakers flasks etc. Everything we got to hear, see by eyes, smell, taste anything, and even a touch involves chemistry and chemicals (matter) i.e. they are resulted by series of different chemical reactions and interactions in our body. The more we got to know the chemistry, the more we know about our world [10, 11] . In this World every substance, whether that occurs naturally or can be synthesize artificially, comprises of atoms that are called the building blocks of chemical substances. So, we can say that Chemistry is the study of properties of atoms and the laws of their combinations for further study of knowledge related to newly made substances.

Mostly a phrase “carbon-based life” is used when life or a living organism is discussed. Carbon is an element present in periodic table in group 6, that is the basic unit of life by which almost everything is made of like; carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acid, and proteins etc. But why it is called life is “carbon-based”?

We have to understand more about elements and for which we have to study Chemistry if we want to find the answer of above question. Chemistry is a separate field from that of biology. In above “life” section, the hierarchical organization of all the living things is demonstrated. And one cannot understand the higher levels of organization (such as living organisms or ecosystems) without understanding their constituent parts (like cells, molecules, and atoms etc.) [12] . In this World, our body and all the living organisms as well as non-living things all are made up of atoms which bound together to form molecules. These atoms and molecules are studied in chemistry and their many different combinations and interactions are the reason of life existence.

So incredibly it can be stated that our life that is made up of approximately 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms, can only be explored by having the connection with some basic chemistry. As discussing more recent developments made in chemistry and biology, the synthesis of corona virus vaccines is a major accomplished example. From plastics to synthesis of medicines, chemistry’s contributions to the life are myriad.