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Book Cover for: Molecules: A Very Short Introduction, Philip Ball

Molecules: A Very Short Introduction

Philip Ball

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The processes in a single living cell are akin to that of a city teeming with molecular inhabitants that move, communicate, cooperate, and compete. In this Very Short Introduction, Philip Ball explores the role of the molecule in and around us--how, for example, a single fertilized egg can grow into a multi-celled Mozart, what makes spider's silk insoluble in the morning dew, and how this molecular dynamism is being captured in the laboratory, promising to reinvent chemistry as the central creative science of the century.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
  • Publish Date: Dec 1st, 2003
  • Pages: 224
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 6.90in - 4.30in - 0.60in - 0.35lb
  • EAN: 9780192854308
  • Categories: • Chemistry - General• Life Sciences - Molecular Biology• Physics - Atomic & Molecular

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About the Author


Philip Ball is a science writer and a consultant editor for Nature. His previous books include Designing the Molecular World, The Self-Made Tapestry, H20: A Biography of Water and The Ingredients: A Guided Tour of the Elements. He lives in London.

More books by Philip Ball

Book Cover for: How Life Works: A User's Guide to the New Biology, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: Patterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: Beautiful Experiments: An Illustrated History of Experimental Science, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: The Elements: A Visual History of Their Discovery, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: The Book of Minds: How to Understand Ourselves and Other Beings, from Animals to AI to Aliens, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: Universe of Stone, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: The Elements: A Very Short Introduction, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: The Modern Myths: Adventures in the Machinery of the Popular Imagination, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: Alchemy: An Illustrated History of Elixirs, Experiments, and the Birth of Modern Science, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: Branches: Nature's Patterns: A Tapestry in Three Parts, Philip Ball
Book Cover for: Why Society Is a Complex Matter: Meeting Twenty-First Century Challenges with a New Kind of Science, Philip Ball

Praise for this book


Review from previous edition: "If the intimate workings of molecules seem invisible, through Philip Ball's lively pros we see them--coming to life, helping us live. A special delight of this excellent book is the tie that emerges between the wondrous molecules of nature and those chemists make in the laboratory."--Ronald Hoffmann, Chemistry Nobel Laureate 1981


"Almost no aspect of the exciting advances in molecular research studies at the beginning of the 21st Century has been left untouched and in so doing, Ball has presented an imaginative, personal overview, which is as instructive as it is enjoyable to read."--Harry Kroto, Chemistry Nobel Laureate 1996


"This is a very readable and non-technical survey."--THES (UK)