In 2008, a team of researchers busily excavated the tiny (only 55m2) coastal Blombos Cave, 300 km east of Cape Town, South Africa, when they discovered something entirely unexpected: a workshop, dating back some 100,000 years, where liquefied ochre-rich mixture was made and stored.

This processing workshop is evidence that humans had some rudimentary knowledge of chemistry even as far back as the stone age.

Since then, chemistry has spawned multiple sub-disciplines, from biochemistry (the study of matter and their interactions and reactions in living organisms) to astrochemistry (the study of matter in the Universe), including their reactions and interactions.

Chemistry abounds in discoveries, but many questions remain. We asked members of the Canadian Journal of Chemistry’s International Advisory Board: What’s the most important unanswered question in your field?

Janet Macdonald | Crystal interactions

At Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, USA, Professor Janet Macdonald is researching the synthesis of nanocrystals and, in particular, transition metal chalcogenides. “Since these are essentially tiny rocks, I like to joke and call myself a nano-inorganic natural product chemist,” says MacDonald…

Read the full story here.