Chemistry - because you're worth it

Better looking, better living, better loving: how chemistry can help you achieve life's goals

John Emsley

Weinheim: Wiley VCH 2007 | Pp229 | £16.99 | ISBN 3 527 31863 1 

There are lots of popular science books around. Astronomy, genetics, readers can't get enough of it. As chemists, our problem is that there is very little 'popular chemistry' in print, so thank goodness for John Emsley's latest contribution.  

This book does what it says on the cover. Successive chapters discuss cosmetic chemistry and health advances, deodorants and personal hygiene, developments in food science, high-tech metals and chemistry in the home, and the chemistry of colour. Consumer chemistry is behind it all, with the author explaining how chemicals in everyday products work.