Designing the Molecular World

Rating:
Summary: Chemistry Update w/o Mathematical Rigor
Review: Enzyme technology? Molecular sieve? Nanotechnology? You'll find clear and illustrative discussion of these current topics in Philip Ball's "Designing the Molecular World." Though the impact of chemistry is ubiquitous, the author contends about the usual emphasis and coverage on physics, astronomy and biology. I tend to agree with this point as one might not even find a chemistry section in a decent-sized independent bookstore. Major chains would have one yet the selection is unfortunately poor with titles like "Chemistry the Easy Way." Ball also retells the discovery of buckminister fullerene C60. Don't be discouraged by the introductory physics remarks, you will find this book very interesting and open your eyes to the up-to-date chemistry research.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating update on a neglected area
Review: The author contends that physics and astronomy get all the public attention these days, to the neglect of chemistry, yet advances in this field have more real impact on our lives. The most interesting parts of this book show how we are adapting biochemistry, such as enzymes, to everyday production of useful chemical resources. The book is written at the level of the "old" Scientific American, with plenty of real science and less of the "gee-whiz" of other popularizations. Thankfully, there is little need for math here, but read the first section carefully, where he explains the basic physics of molecules, which is central to the rest of the book. I enjoyed it thoroughly and it really brought this reader, who had his last chemistry in 1961, up to speed on chemistry today.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic review of or introduction to molecular design
Review: When looking for detailed, specific information about nanotechnology, I stumbled across this book. At that time, I knew that there was a link between chemistry and nanotechnology, but was having trouble finding chemistry books that made sense from a molecular engineering (nanotechnology) point of view.

I rarely read technical books from cover to cover, but this one was so engaging and covered so many topics that I actually WANTED to learn more about that I found I could not put it down. Most chemistry books seem to be focused on bulk properties of broad classes of chemical compounds (i.e. "When compounds of class A are mixed with compounds of class B, the result is typically compounds of classes D and E). This was the only popular book I found that day that specifically discussed atomic and molecular processes from an ATOMIC level.

After reading the book, I found myself reading complex technical articles with surprising ease and understanding terminology that I otherwise would not have recognized, though I might have been exposed to it in college.

The end of the book contains several chapters describing the author's particular views about the origins of life and the universe, and about various environmental crises with a noticeable, but not overriding, disdain for certain other points of view. I appreciated that the author shared his opinions on these matters, but also kept them to the end and clearly separated from the rest of the book. This section is still engaging and presents interesting points of view.

This book combines historical stories and anecdotes with explanations of traditional chemistry to show how "chemistry" has changed and how it has spawned the new field of molecular engineering (popularly known as Nanotechnology), related to but distinct from chemical engineering.