“The Beauty of Chemistry: Art, Wonder, and Science” by Philip Ball, Wenting Zhu, Yan Liang

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

A fascinating and lovely book looking the beauty that can be found in chemistry. While most ‘stock photos’ of chemistry often focus on people in lab clothes staring at test tubes, this book shows what most chemists see: the beauty in the chemical reactions itself. But it doesn’t stop at that. While it features lots of wonderful shots of chemical reactions (and is a major reason for producing the book), the text in the book fills in the general details of what is happening in the chemical reactions to produce such beautiful effects.

What follows is a chapter by chapter look at the kinds of chemical reactions featured in the book.

1 EFFERVESCENT: THE BEAUTY OF BUBBLES: a look at bubbles generated by various chemical reactions, from the bubbles generated by household items to those by yeast (creating Champaign), followed by a look at how bubbles appear in liquids, start to grow and then burst on liquid surfaces.

2 ORDERLY: THE CHARM OF CRYSTALS: the chapter looks at crystals. Their beauty was appreciated since ancient times and still. Today, crystals are used to generate purer versions of a particular chemical. Substances are also solidified into the form of crystals so that their structure can be studied.

3 INSOLUBLE: THE POWER OF PRECIPITATION: a chapter that looks at the puzzle of how soluble substances can be made to become solid and precipitate when mixed. It then considers why water is such a good solvent for so many substances. It then looks at the Hydrogen bond, a chemical bond that is neither too strong nor too weak, allowing water to be a liquid at room temperatures.

4 EXUBERANT: THE DELIGHT OF DENDRITIC GROWTH: related to precipitation, this chapter looks at how snowflakes and other substances form patterns as they grow from chemical solutions. While much of the chemistry behind dendritic growth has been figured out, mysteries remain, like why snowflakes can look so symmetrical.

5 INCENDIARY: THE FASCINATION OF FLAMES: this chapter looks at how a flame burns and looks at the chemical processes that occur as combustion takes place and leaves behind other substances that are only now being discovered, like carbon spheres and nanotubes.

6 GALVANIZING: THE ENCHANTMENT OF ELECTROCHEMISTRY: a look at the chemistry involved in plating materials with the help of electricity. Starting with what happens when metals are oxidized and reduced, which leads to the concept of batteries. Batteries are then used as a source of energy to break apart (electrolysis) and combine (electroplating) materials. A brief section on what makes metals different from other materials is also given.

7 CHROMATIC: THE CURIOSITY OF COLOR CHANGES IN PLANTS: this chapter looks at the chemicals that gives flowers and leaves their particular colours, and also briefly looks at efforts to grow plants with new colours, like blue roses.

8 CALESCENT: THE HELPFULNESS OF HEAT: a look at how chemical reactions look like under different kinds of light (mainly infrared light), showing that even when nothing visible seems to be happening, a chemical reaction is taking place due to a change in temperature. An explanation is also briefly provided for how some chemical reactions can remove heat (become colder) which is due to an increase in the entropy is the system, more than enough to compensate for the decrease in heat.

9 ORGANIC: THE CONTORTIONS OF CHEMICAL GARDENS: the beauty of chemical gardens (organic looking growths produced by chemical reactions with various metals) is looked at in the chapter, showing some incredible and beautiful forms that can be produced. Their resemblance to trees and bushes of real gardens is more than skin deep, for some chemical processes taking place resemble those that take place in organic cells.

10 CREATIVE: THE PROFUSION OF PATTERNS: a look at the fascinating patterns that can be produced by what are known as reaction-diffusion systems. Based on the work of chemists as well as Alan Turing’s theory on activation and inhibition, it would show how patterns similar to those found on animals could be created by the actions of chemicals.

Book read from 2021/07/10 to 2021/07/17