An engaging chemistry lesson that also serves as an encyclopedia to understanding the world around us.
A chemistry professor teaches “the stories your chemistry teachers wouldn’t tell you” through short, accessible lessons on drugs, deadly household items, mysteries of ordinary objects, and more.
Debut author Farmer (Chemistry/Sonoma State Univ.) devoted his life to chemistry after a high school friend on LSD jumped in front of a car and was killed instantly. He was driven by a quest to better understand hallucinogens and their effect on the brain, but he also wanted answers to other questions that haunted his childhood. When Farmer became a chemistry instructor, he noticed that he would regularly stump his classroom when he asked a question that provides the title of a subsection here: “What Substance is Used to Make 80% of All Pharmaceuticals?” (The answer: petroleum.) His shock regarding how little the general public knows about chemistry led him to write this book. In it, he does go into drug-related topics, such as how methamphetamines act as a stimulant, but also addresses much more than just chemical extremes. The first chapter introduces basic chemistry concepts, such as atoms, molecules, and neurotransmitters. The following chapters each cover an overarching theme, such as “The Poisons in Everyday Things,” which breaks down into specific lessons: “How Can Visine Kill You?” “Death by BENGAY,” “Deadly Helium Balloons,” and others, and ends with a list of materials for further reading. Each lesson is no more than a few pages long and successfully shows how relevant chemistry is in everyday life. In the seventh chapter, “Why Junior Mints Are Shiny and Other Weird Facts about Your Food,” Farmer explains why it’s hard to remove gum from the soles of shoes by describing what causes strong intermolecular forces. The lessons include images of molecular structures; others include funny cartoons, such as an elephant balancing on a pencil to represent graphene’s strength. The short sections and accessible language will keep readers’ attention, and the frequent addition of molecular structures could be a useful addition to chemistry courses.
An engaging chemistry lesson that also serves as an encyclopedia to understanding the world around us.Pub Date: July 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-119-26526-9
Page Count: 326
Publisher: Wiley
Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A magnificent account of a central reality of our times, incorporating deep scientific expertise, broad political and social knowledge, and ethical insight, and Idled with beautifully written biographical sketches of the men and women who created nuclear physics. Rhodes describes in detail the great scientific achievements that led up to the invention of the atomic bomb. Everything of importance is examined, from the discovery of the atomic nucleus and of nuclear fission to the emergence of quantum physics, the invention of the mass-spectroscope and of the cyclotron, the creation of such man-made elements as plutonium and tritium, and implementation of the nuclear chain reaction in uranium. Even more important, Rhodes shows how these achievements were thrust into the arms of the state, which culminated in the unfolding of the nuclear arms race. Often brilliantly, he records the rise of fascism and of anti-Semitism, and the intensification of nationalist ambitions. He traces the outbreak of WW II, which provoked a hysterical rivalry among nations to devise the bomb. This book contains a grim description of Japanese resistance, and of the horrible psychological numbing that caused an unparalleled tolerance for human suffering and destruction. Rhodes depicts the Faustian scale of the Manhattan Project. His account of the dropping of the bomb itself, and of the awful firebombing that prepared its way, is unforgettable. Although Rhodes' gallery of names and events is sometimes dizzying, his scientific discussions often daunting, he has written a book of great drama and sweep. A superb accomplishment.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0684813785
Page Count: 932
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986
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