Philip Ball

Elegant Solutions (eBook, PDF)

Ten Beautiful Experiments in Chemistry

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Devising and performing a scientific experiment is an art, and it is common to hear scientists talk about the 'beauty' of an experiment. What does this mean in chemistry, the experimental science par excellence? And what are the most beautiful chemical experiments of all time? This book offers ten suggestions for where beauty might reside in experimental chemistry. In some cases the beauty lies in the clarity of conception; sometimes it is a feature of the instrumental design. But for chemistry, there can also be a unique beauty in the way atoms are put together to make new molecules, substances not known in nature. The ten experiments described here offer a window into the way that chemists think and work, and how what they do affects the rest of science and the wider world. This book aims to stimulate the reader to think anew about some of the relationships and differences between science and art, and to challenge some of the common notions about particular 'famous experiments'. Elegant Solutions: Ten Beautiful Experiments in Chemistry is accessible to all readers, including those without a scientific background and can provide an unusual point of entry into some of the basic concepts of chemistry. Phillip Ball is a renowned, prolific, award winning science writer.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: RSC
• Seitenzahl: 219
• Erscheinungstermin: 31. Oktober 2007
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781847552600
• Artikelnr.: 70074772

Autorenporträt

Phillip Ball is a renowned, prolific, award winning science writer. Previous publications include; Designing the Molecular World (1994), which won the Association of American Publishers' award for the best chemistry book, H2O: A Biography of Water (1999) winner of the Premio Acqua Scrittura award for best international writing on water, and Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour (2001) which won the 2003 Society for the History of Technology award for the best writing on the history of technology, and was shortlisted for a US National Book Critics Circle award in 2002.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction: What is an Experiment? What is Beauty?
Section 1: Asking Questions of Nature
Chapter 1: How Does Your Garden Grow?
Chapter 2: An Element Compounded
Chapter 3: New Light
Chapter 4: The Marvellous Glass Balloon
Chapter 5: The Elements Came in One By One
Divertissement 1: Chemistry as Theatre
Section 2: Posing New Questions
Chapter 6: Molecules Take Shape
Divertissement 2: Myths and Romances
Chapter 7: Life and How to Make It
Chapter 8: Not So Noble
Section 3: The Art of Making Things
Chapter 9: Nature Rebuilt
Chapter 10: Plato's Molecules
Divertissement 3: Chemical Aesthetics