A matter-of-fact guide to mastering the basics of chemistry. We're all natural born chemists. Every time we cook, clean, take a shower, drive a car, use a solvent (such as nail polish remover), or perform any of the countless everyday activities that involve complex chemical reactions we're doing chemistry! So why do so many of us desperately resist learning chemistry when we're young?

Our understanding of nature - as a succession of forms assumed by eternal elements - emerged during the hundred years between 1840 and 1940, when theories of thermodynamics, atomic structure, and the equivalence of matter and energy all took shape. In Peter Whitfield's view, it represents probably the greatest single achievement of human thought. --Jacket. In the course of his stimulating and wide-ranging survey, Whitfield describes the long and...

"From atomic structures to theories about magnetic forces, scientific progress has given us a good grasp on the properties of many different materials. However, most scientists cannot measure the temperature of steel just by looking at it, or sculpt stone into all kinds of shapes, or know how it feels to blow up a balloon of glass. Handmade is the story of materials through making and doing. Author and material scientist Anna Ploszajski journeys into...

Uncover chemistry -- the science of how everything interacts. From particles to polymers, an award-winning professor covers it all.