本文摘录自作者所著的《化学是什么》一书，该书由北京大学出版社出版。用5小节内容说明化学对社会发展、环境保护和人民生活所作出的贡献,提高公众对化学的认识：用火的化学活动使猿猴进化成人；石油能源的开采利用；玻璃的研制；环境和化学；青蒿素的化学改性。

This article is extracted from author’s book—What is Chemistry. In this article, the contributions of chemistry to social development, environment protection, and daily lives are presented with the aim of improving the understanding of chemistry to the public. The topics involve: human evolvement promoted by firerelated “chemical activities”, the exploit and usage of petroleum, the research and production of glass, environment and chemistry, the chemical modification of artemisinin.