Overview

"What are things made of? ""Everything is composed of small mollycules of itself, and they are flying around in concentric circles and arcs and segments,"" explains Sergeant Fottrell in Flann O'Brien's ""The Dalkey Archive"". Philip Ball shows that the world of the molecule is indeed a dynamic place. Using the chemistry of life as a springboard, he provides a new perspective on modern chemical science as a whole. Living cells are full of molecules in motion, communication, co-operation, and competition. Molecular scientists are now starting to capture the same dynamism in synthetic molecular systems, promising to reinvent chemistry as the central creative science of the 21st century."

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<br> In a society of chemical agnostics, it is a brave missionary who tries to reveal its mysteries, but that is what the author of Stories of the Invisible has attempted to do--and done remarkably well...Ball is the right person to write this gospel...At no point does Stories of the Invisible sacrifice sound science for sound bites--we are in the hands of a scholar and true believer. --John Emsley, Nature<br> Pop-science enthusiasts will eat it up. --Publishers Weekly<br> Ball's inspiring tour of this small world illustrates how molecules assemble and function and how that action influences myriad aspects of the macro world. --Science News<br> Ball uses the same refreshing style evident in his previous books...to bring the world of chemistry to the lay reader. --Library Journal<br> An intriguing, quick-reading introduction to chemistry's state of play. --Booklist<br>

In a society of chemical agnostics, it is a brave missionary who tries to reveal its mysteries, but that is what the author of Stories of the Invisible has attempted to do--and done remarkably well...Ball is the right person to write this gospel...At no point does Stories of the Invisible sacrifice sound science for sound bites--we are in the hands of a scholar and true believer. --John Emsley, Nature<br> Pop-science enthusiasts will eat it up. --Publishers Weekly<br> Ball's inspiring tour of this small world illustrates how molecules assemble and function and how that action influences myriad aspects of the macro world. --Science News<br> Ball uses the same refreshing style evident in his previous books...to bring the world of chemistry to the lay reader. --Library Journal<br> An intriguing, quick-reading introduction to chemistry's state of play. --Booklist<br>

In a society of chemical agnostics, it is a brave missionary who tries to reveal its mysteries, but that is what the author of Stories of the Invisible has attempted to do--and done remarkably well...Ball is the right person to write this gospel...At no point does Stories of the Invisible sacrifice sound science for sound bites--we are in the hands of a scholar and true believer. --John Emsley, Nature Pop-science enthusiasts will eat it up. --Publishers Weekly Ball's inspiring tour of this small world illustrates how molecules assemble and function and how that action influences myriad aspects of the macro world. --Science News Ball uses the same refreshing style evident in his previous books...to bring the world of chemistry to the lay reader. --Library Journal An intriguing, quick-reading introduction to chemistry's state of play. --Booklist

British science writer Ball ( Life's Matrix: A Biography of Water , 2000, etc.) offers a short introduction to chemistry, with a strong emphasis on that of our own bodies. Chemistry has an image problem, Ball recognizes, with words like thalidomide and Bhopal triggering unpleasant associations in the public consciousness. Thus, he chooses molecules as the focus here: that term (which refers to atoms in combination, the central concern of chemistry as a science) remains neutral for most readers. (He even suggests renaming chemistry molecular science. ) So it's easy to see why, in the first chapter, Ball impatiently races through the conventional historical survey of chemistry, from the Greeks through the Periodic Table to quantum mechanics-after all, that history emphasizes atoms. It's molecules that are responsible for living things, he reminds us, and so he devotes most of this tour to a fascinating inventory of the molecules employed by our body's cells and organs to do their work. DNA and RNA, the vehicles of genetic information, are the best known of this group, but every substance in the body has a role to play. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP to biochemists) is the common energy currency of animal cells, breaking up in a controlled way to allow organisms to burn oxygen. Proteins perform many tasks; there are some 60,000 different ones in the human body, each with a specialized function. Collagen is a rope-like structural protein that forms the basis of everything from bones to the cornea. More specialized is a molecule such as silk, the strength of which no synthetic can match. Even more fascinating are the proteins: myosin and actin, which allow our muscles to expand and contract; or G proteins, which transfer information from outside a cell to the organelles. Ball shows these in all their variety, spiced with interesting anecdotes and personal glimpses of chemists. A solid, well-written overview of molecular chemistry. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Philip Ball is a science writer and consultant editor for Nature. He is the author of Self-Made Tapestry, Designing the Molecular World, and H2O: A Biography of Water. He lives in London.

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