Stories of the Invisible: A Guided Tour of Molecules by Philip Ball
From a community of molecules, life somehow emerges. It seems miraculous, for molecules have no intrinsic life of their own. Life is a result of their interactions, their communication, cooperation, competition and motion. This book uses the chemistry of life to explain what molecules are, how and why chemists make new ones, and how the molecular sciences are eroding the boundaries between natural and synthetic…
From a community of molecules, life somehow emerges. It seems miraculous, for molecules have no intrinsic life of their own. Life is a result of their interactions, their communication, cooperation, competition and motion. This book uses the chemistry of life to explain what molecules are, how and why chemists make new ones, and how the molecular sciences are eroding the boundaries between natural and synthetic by seeking to emulate some of biology’s microscopic feats of engineering.
BUY ON AMAZON
Commissioned as part of OUP’s Very Short Introductions series, the book is written for non-scientists and provides a whistle-stop tour around the frontiers of chemical and biochemical science, from the digital database of DNA to ultra-strong molecular materials to the creation of artificial molecular-scale machines in the field of nanotechnology.
Oxford University Press Hard Back First Edition (2001) ISBN 0-19-280214-3
Republished by Oxford University Press in their Very Short Introductions series as a “Molocules: A Very Short Introduction” (2003) ISBN 0-192-85430-5
BUY NOW on Amazon