La recherche en Chimie

French chemist Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) laid the foundations of chemistry as the science of the transformation of matter. A long line of great French chemists followed in his footsteps—notable among them Claude Berthollet (1748–1822), Louis-Joseph Gay de Lussac (1778–1850), Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907), and Louis Pasteur (1822–1895). France’s chemical industry (including pharmaceuticals) is the world’s sixth-largest, and ranks second in Europe, after Germany. In terms of spending on research and development, the chemical industry (again including pharmaceuticals) is the leading manufacturing sector in France and the country’s second export industry. Plus...