Nature's Amazing Chemistry - by Michael Freemantle Hardcover

About the Book

A collection of essays and personal reflections on some of nature's chemicals aimed at the popular science market. The essays in this book focus on some of nature's animal, vegetable and mineral chemicals that have fascinated the author during his career as a chemist, chemistry teacher and science writer.

Book Synopsis

Nature's amazing chemistry has been producing all the raw materials essential for life on Earth for billions of years. The chemistry is, however, diverse and often complex and challenging. It has unfathomable depths that chemists and other scientists around the world are still attempting to probe and understand. Chapters in this book reflect Michael Freemantle's fascination with nature's chemistry not only of humans and other animals, but also of plants and minerals. You will discover:

• the chemistry of fruit flies, lobsters and beavers;
• the chemistry of snowdrops, wild cabbages and Himalayan blue poppies;
• the chemistry of minerals containing cobalt and other elements, the mining of which has in some cases led to environmental degradation and human rights abuses.

Michael Freemantle is a science writer who has written numerous books and articles on chemistry, the history of science and related topics. They include The Chemists' War: 1914-1918 published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Review Quotes

Strikes a perfect balance between meaningful and proper chemistry without being too academic or reference-based, meaning you can still read it after a busy day at work....It's a wondrous treat and delightfully eccentric. The author is an experienced science writer and this shows. He never leaves you behind and has a refreshing, almost personal style of writing. You feel you are, at times, being treated to a preview into his very thoughts regarding a subject he is writing about which is wonderful because it mirrors that idea of scientific exploration and asking the question why. I can't recommend this book enough!