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

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Summary: Molecules at an Exhibition: Portraits of Intriguing Material
Review: "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.

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Summary: Serves its purpose. Interesting in small doses.
Review: Apt title; reads like a trivia reference book. Snapshots of molecules with brief recounting of history, chemistry and uses. Somewhat entertaining. Can seem dry. A decent coffee table book.

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Summary: great for teachers
Review: 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.

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Summary: Uneven but fascination
Review: 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.