Much of life can be understood in rational terms if expressed in the language of chemistry. It is an international language, a language without dialects, a language for all time, a language that explains where we came from, what we are, and where the physical world will allow us to go. Chemical language has great aesthetic beauty and links the physical sciences to the biological sciences. Over the past two centuries, chemistry has evolved from a relatively pure disciplinary pursuit to a position of central importance in the physical and life sciences. More generally, it has provided the language and methodology that has unified, integrated, and indeed, molecularized the sciences, shaping our understanding of the molecular world and in so doing the direction and development.