Short answers, pulled from the story.
Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline of chemistry that studies the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and materials, meaning matter that contains carbon atoms. It covers the chemical synthesis of natural products, drugs, and polymers, and the study of individual organic molecules in the laboratory and through theoretical, in silico work.
In 1828, Friedrich Wöhler produced urea, a constituent of urine, from the inorganic salts potassium cyanate and ammonium sulfate. This Wöhler synthesis was the first time a substance thought to be organic was made without biological starting materials, and it is now generally accepted as disproving the doctrine of vitalism.
William Henry Perkin discovered Perkin's mauve in 1856 by accident while trying to manufacture quinine. The dye's financial success made the discovery widely known and greatly increased interest in organic chemistry.
The first fullerene was discovered in 1985 by Sir Harold W. Kroto of the United Kingdom and by Richard E. Smalley and Robert F. Curl Jr. of the United States. They vaporized graphite rods with a laser in helium gas and obtained a hollow sphere of 60 carbon atoms named buckminsterfullerene, and the trio won the Nobel Prize in 1996.
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is the most commonly used technique, followed by elemental analysis, mass spectrometry, and crystallography. Chromatography methods such as HPLC and gas chromatography assess purity, while infrared, UV/VIS, optical rotation, refractive index, and density support specific applications.
Total synthesis is the multiple-step synthesis of complex organic compounds, and it has grown to include molecules of high complexity such as lysergic acid and vitamin B12. The retrosynthesis strategy, popularized by E.J. Corey, begins with the target molecule and splits it into precursors based on known reactions until inexpensive starting materials are reached.
Carbon has a valence of four, forming single, double, and triple bonds plus structures with delocalized electrons, which makes organic compounds structurally diverse. Carbon also readily forms chains and networks linked by carbon-carbon bonds, the basis of polymers, and organic compounds form the basis of all known life and the majority of known chemicals.