Molecules that amaze us

By Chemistry World2015-07-03T00:00:00

Compound conversations

Paul May and Simon Cotton
CRC Press
2014 | 742pp | £38.99
ISBN 9781466589605

In the mid-1990s researcher Paul May founded the Molecule of the month website. Starting with an article on mauveine, ‘the first industrial organic fine-chemical’, in January 1996, the blog series has been running ever since, and still retains some of its early world wide web flavour today. However, the blog article formats varied – a mixture of encyclopaedia-style entries and narrative-driven pieces – an issue addressed in May and Simon Cotton’s book Molecules that amaze us, which is based on the website.

May and Cotton have now collated 67 of the most interesting compounds, dedicating a chapter to each of them. Chapters are presented in an interesting interview style, with questions that range from serious to humourous.

This article provides a link to the review in Chemistry World

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