|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A superb, easy to read science book, 23 May 2000
Although there has been an explosion (no pun intended) of popular science books in the last few years, there have been precious few about chemistry, this book goes some way to correcting the shortfall.In a little over 300 pages, John Emsley gives a comprehensive history of phosphorus, from its discovery by alchemists searching for ways of turning base metals into gold, to a bang-up-to-date section on its many uses as food additives and in drugs. The style is readable with a minimal use of unnecessary scientific notation. It painlessly introduces some complex organic and inorganic chemistry and will appeal to chemistry students by supplementing some of the dry academic texts out there. The book really succeeds by showing how phosphorus has been a catalyst for change in wider society. It powered the agricultural revolution of the 18th Century, the match workers of 19th Century London brought about the modern trade union movement and the chemistry of phosphorus was essential to the development of chemical warfare in the 20th Century. The book tails off a little towards the end, with some of the later chapters being very thin. Perhaps the author was less interested in the present uses of phosphorus than its history, but they could have been longer. And the final chapter is redundant. The author says he does not believe in spontaneous human combustion and then writes a great deal about how it might happen. Apart from the last chapter, this is an almost perfect book, I wish I had had it when studying Chemistry A-Level.
|
by John Emsley
by Primo Levi
