Nova kemija, koja je u 20. stoljeću nastala kroz četiri revolucije (instrumentalnu, teorijsku, biološku i informatičku), pojavila se nakon Drugog svjetskog rata i u Hrvatskoj, ponajviše zahvaljujući školovanju naših kemičara u inozemstvu. To je dovelo do sukoba starih (tradicionalnih) i novih kemičara, ponajviše kemičara-teoretičara. Sukob se očitovao u dva vida: fundamentalnom, jer stari kemičari nisu prihvaćali da se u kemiji može istraživati bez laboratorija, i pragmatičnom, jer se pojavio problem vrednovanja znanstvenog rada brojem publikacija. Također se analiziraju posljedice sukoba kemičara-teoretičara i kemičara-eksperimentatora kao i razlozi njegova jenjavanja u 21. stoljeću. New chemistry, the chemistry of the 20th century, developed through four revolutions (instrumental, theoretical, biological, and informational). This development was also evident in Croatia, especially after WWII, when many young Croatian chemists had been educated at British, American, but also Russian universities. This led to the clash of old, traditional (K. Balenović), and young, modern chemists (M. Randić, N. Trinajstić), who introduced theoretical (computational), quantum, and mathematical chemistry in Croatia. There were two aspects of the clash. The first was fundamental; traditional chemists were unable to comprehend chemical research without a chemical laboratory. The second, pragmatic aspect of the clash, materialized in scientometrics, i.e. discussions about the value of chemical research in terms of the number of published papers. Theoretical chemists, namely, published much more than their colleagues engaged in laboratory practice, mostly because of scarce resources and bad organization of scientific research in communist Yugoslavia (1945–1991).