Molecules at an Exhibition: Portraits of Intriguing Materials in Everyday Life

by John Emsley

Book Overview

What ingredient in Coke can remove rust from chrome? What is the bitterest substance on earth? What is the worst smelling one? In this entertaining tour of chemistry, John Emsley answers these and many other questions as he illuminates the materials that make up our world. Dozens of lively articles explore such well-known molecules as water, oxygen, and glass; versatile plastics like polypropylene, polystyrene, and polyurethane; even "elements from...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192862065
• ISBN13: 9780192862068
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Entertaining and educational tour-de-force in chemistry

Its one of those anecdotical and thought provocking essays on the subject of chemistry.. while telling the story, you actually learn something and not necessarily in chemistry, this is what makes the book so interesting. If you are like me, not crazy to be a chemist wiz, but like to have functinal knowledge of what materials and compunds affect you everyday, then this is the book. Also it serves as stepping stones or lateral-thought provocations that will make you have other points of view open.

Molecules at an Exhibition: Portraits of Intriguing Material

"Molecules at an Exhibition: Portraits of Intriguing Materials in Everyday Life" written by John Emsley in a very intriguing book to say the least, filled with anecdotal and fascinating science. If you've ever wanted to know something more about everyday chemistry this is the book for you. This book should be read by all high school chemistry teachers to bring this information to their respective classes. I found this book to be a treasure trove of information about things that are now common in everyday life but at one time they were great breakthroughs. Like the information given about what's really in Coca-Cola... neither Coca leaves nor Cola nuts, but rather that the blending of ingrediants such as blended oils of lemon (120 parts), orange (80), nutmeg (40), cinnamon (40), neroli (40) and coriandor (20). These were blended in a special way only by Dr. John Pemberton a pharmacist to produce what we know as formula 7X for Coca-Cola the drink that he invented. There are intriguing questions that are answered throughout this narrative text as to what is it in chocolate that makes us feel good, what is the chean, cold fuel for the coming century, and what's the molecule that turns men on? These are but a few of the questions that answers abound in this book as we read on. You'll find that the narrative is informative as it is anecdotal and there are a lot of surprises as you read on in the text. The book is set up in galleries rather then chapters as the author showcases like materials. They are as follows: Gallery 1 Nearly as nature intended Gallery 2 Testing your metal Gallery 3 Starting lives, saving lives screwing up lives Gallery 4 Home, sweet home Gallery 5 Material progress and immaterial observations Gallery 6 Landscape room: environmentail cons, concerns Gallery 7 We're on the road to nowhere Gallery 8 Elements from hell You need not have a degree in chemistry to understand this book as it is written in plain and easily understandable language as there are no chemical formulas, equations, or molecular diagrams, but the is a list of other books you can consult at the end of the book. I gave "Molecules at an Exhibition" a solid 5 stars for being informative and educational and answering many questions about things in everyday life that makes todays life easier.

great for teachers

I use this book to enhance my high school chemistry class. Reading from this book allows my students to see how chemistry really works in their everyday lives. They see connections and often I hear "ahh... " or "cool!" Every Monday I pick a chemical and list it on the board as "chemical of the week". We then read about them on Fridays and discuss. This book is a great way to put some real-life applications into a chemistry class.

Uneven but fascination

Mr. Elmsley is a stylist potent enough to make what to most people is a ho-hum subject into interesting reading. As a budding chemist myself I am not of that ilk; even so a person with the least bit of curiosity about how things work will be enlightened and entertained by Elmsley's exposition about chemistry as it affects our everyday lives.The expostion is titled in imitation of Moussorgsky's pictures at an Exposition and refers to the loose organization of essays around topics, e.g., the chemistry of polymers.The essays are somewhat uneven, however, in terms of the energy behind their creation and, consequently, the volume of interest they might generate. These essays were created by the author over a largish period of time, as he writes a column for a British newspaper on chemical topics. The essay on penicillin, for example, is of some antiquity. And it is just here I find the greatest fault with Elmsley's writing. During the development of penicillin, which took place during the Second War, its British originators wanted to patent it, but were vetoed by their group leader on the grounds that things of great humanitarian value as this would surely prove to be should not be privatized. This is made out to be a value of the English character. Since the Islands were under Luftwaffe attack, the mass production of the first antibiotic was taken to America where the strain of mold was expropriated and patented by one of the local scientists, a dasdardly act that, of course, made him rich. SUch ruthlessness is made out to be a feature of the American character by Elmsley. Sorry, John.

Fascinating look at everyday materials.

Molecules might seem an unlikely topic for a popular work, but the author is one of those rare teachers who can breathe life into the most unpromising subject. This work is a guided tour through some of the most interesting materials on earth - or perhaps this is Emsley's art. He has organized his subjects thematically in broad areas such as health, transport, and the environment, with eight galleries of a dozen portraits each. The history of each is traced, with information on its structure, origin, and its role in our world. Some substances, such as selenium, prove unexpectedly vital. Others, such as Sarin, the terrorists' nerve gas, began innocuously enough but have been adopted for evil purposes. Still others hold the key to the secret of chocolate, how Teflon sticks to pans, and possibly a clean, renewable fuel for the future. All are interesting. The alchemy is Emsley's transmutation of chemistry into entertaining instruction. (The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)