Ball - Molecules : a Very Short Introduction

Molecules: A Very Short Introduction

a lucid account of the way that chemists see the molecular world enriched with many historical and literary references, and accessible to the reader untrained in chemistry for whom it was written.

Times Higher Education Supplement

Balls writing is sharp and drolly intelligent reliably good and often excellent.

New Scientist

In a society of chemical agnostics, it is a brave missionary who tries to reveal its mysteries, but that is what the author has attempted to do and done remarkably well. At no point does Stories of the Invisible sacrifice sound science for sound bites.

Nature

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

A must for all those who wish to acquire a basic scientific culture while greatly enjoying it.

Jean-Marie Lehn, Chemistry Nobel Laureate 1987

A modern troubadour, [Ball] deftly and happily extols the magic of tiny leprechauns, furiously active in generating energy, assembling machinery, and exchanging fateful messages that govern everything visible to our gargantuan eyes.

Dudley Herschbach, Chemistry Nobel Laureate 1986

Very Short Introductions available now:

ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas

THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair

ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia

ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn

ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne

ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes

ART HISTORY Dana Arnold

ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland

THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin

ATHEISM Julian Baggini

AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick

BARTHES Jonathan Culler

THE BIBLE John Riches

BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright

BUDDHA Michael Carrithers

BUDDHISM Damien Keown

CAPITALISM James Fulcher

THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe

CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham

CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson

CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson

CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard

THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon

CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY Simon Critchley

COSMOLOGY Peter Coles

CRYPTOGRAPHY Fred Piper and Sean Murphy

DADA AND SURREALISM David Hopkins

DARWIN Jonathan Howard

DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick

DESCARTES Tom Sorell

DRUGS Leslie Iversen

THE EARTH Martin Redfern

EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY Geraldine Pinch

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Paul Langford

THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball

EMOTION Dylan Evans

EMPIRE Stephen Howe

ENGELS Terrell Carver

ETHICS Simon Blackburn

THE EUROPEAN UNION John Pinder

EVOLUTION Brian and Deborah Charlesworth

FASCISM Kevin Passmore

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION William Doyle

FREUD Anthony Storr

GALILEO Stillman Drake

GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh

GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger

HEGEL Peter Singer

HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood

HINDUISM Kim Knott

HISTORY John H. Arnold

HOBBES Richard Tuck

HUME A. J. Ayer

IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden

INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton

INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary

ISLAM Malise Ruthven

JUDAISM Norman Solomon

JUNG Anthony Stevens

KANT Roger Scruton

KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner

THE KORAN Michael Cook

LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews

LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler

LOCKE John Dunn

LOGIC Graham Priest

MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner

MARX Peter Singer

MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers

MEDIEVAL BRITAIN John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths

MODERN IRELAND Senia Paeta

MOLECULES Philip Ball

MUSIC Nicholas Cook

NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner

NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and H. C. G. Matthew

NORTHERN IRELAND Marc Mulholland

PAUL E. P. Sanders

PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Samir Okasha

PLATO Julia Annas

POLITICS Kenneth Minogue

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY David Miller

POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young

POSTMODERNISM Christopher Butler

POSTSTRUCTURALISM Catherine Belsey

PREHISTORY Chris Gosden

PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY Catherine Osborne

PSYCHOLOGY Gillian Butler and Freda McManus

QUANTUM THEORY John Polkinghorne

ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway

ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler

RUSSELL A. C. Grayling

RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION S. A. Smith

SCHIZOPHRENIA Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone

SCHOPENHAUER Christopher Janaway

SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY John Monaghan and Peter Just

SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce

SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor

SPINOZA Roger Scruton

STUART BRITAIN John Morrill

TERRORISM Charles Townshend

THEOLOGY David F. Ford

THE TUDORS John Guy

TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan

WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling

WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman

Available soon:

AFRICAN HISTORY John Parker and Richard Rathbone

ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw

THE BRAIN Michael OShea

BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown

CHAOS Leonard Smith

CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead

CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy

CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE Robert Tavernor

CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko

CONTEMPORARY ART Julian Stallabrass

THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman

DERRIDA Simon Glendinning

DESIGN John Heskett

DINOSAURS David Norman

DREAMING J. Allan Hobson

ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta

THE END OF THE WORLD Bill McGuire

EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn

THE FIRST WORLD WAR Michael Howard

FREE WILL Thomas Pink

FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven

HABERMAS Gordon Finlayson

HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson

HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson

HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Paul Wilkinson

JAZZ Brian Morton

MANDELA Tom Lodge

MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope

THE MIND Martin Davies

MYTH Robert Segal

NATIONALISM Steven Grosby

PERCEPTION Richard Gregory

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot

PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards

THE RAJ Denis Judd

THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton

RENAISSANCE ART Geraldine Johnson

SARTRE Christina Howells

THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Helen Graham

TRAGEDY Adrian Poole

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Martin Conway

For more information visit our web site www.oup.co.uk/vsi

A Very Short Introduction

Philip Ball

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