Scan barcode
annieb123's review against another edition
5.0
Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
The Beauty of Chemistry is a beautifully illustrated coffee-table book homage to the artistic side of chemistry. Released 11th May 2021 from MIT Press, it's 392 pages and is available in hardcover and e-book formats.
This is an extremely graphics heavy book full of awe inspiring and beautiful photos and illustrations. There are some chemistry concepts included in layman accessible language, but it's not in any way a textbook of chemistry. The text, engaging and erudite, by Philip Ball is worth the price of admission, but it's the stunning illustrations which kept me turning the pages. They are sublime; from the most mundane (CO2 bubbles in a soft drink) to the most exotic, the photos are arresting.
Whilst I enjoyed all the chapters (arranged roughly thematically: bubbles, crystals, precipitation reactions, dendritic growth, combustion, electrochemistry, plant chromatism, heat reactions, organic chemistry, and patterns), it was the appendices, and especially the molecule models which I really enjoyed. The molecules were rendered in the space-filling 3D models familiar to every student of chemistry, and the explanations were understandable and informative. Reading and looking at these would make a fun game even for very small children who would almost certainly love seeing them (and learning them) again and again with a willing adult.
Because of the colorful photography and graphics heavy format, the hardcover format would be a much better choice than e-book format.
Five stars, with the codicil that this is not a textbook of chemistry. It would make a superlative choice for public, classroom, or home library.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
The Beauty of Chemistry is a beautifully illustrated coffee-table book homage to the artistic side of chemistry. Released 11th May 2021 from MIT Press, it's 392 pages and is available in hardcover and e-book formats.
This is an extremely graphics heavy book full of awe inspiring and beautiful photos and illustrations. There are some chemistry concepts included in layman accessible language, but it's not in any way a textbook of chemistry. The text, engaging and erudite, by Philip Ball is worth the price of admission, but it's the stunning illustrations which kept me turning the pages. They are sublime; from the most mundane (CO2 bubbles in a soft drink) to the most exotic, the photos are arresting.
Whilst I enjoyed all the chapters (arranged roughly thematically: bubbles, crystals, precipitation reactions, dendritic growth, combustion, electrochemistry, plant chromatism, heat reactions, organic chemistry, and patterns), it was the appendices, and especially the molecule models which I really enjoyed. The molecules were rendered in the space-filling 3D models familiar to every student of chemistry, and the explanations were understandable and informative. Reading and looking at these would make a fun game even for very small children who would almost certainly love seeing them (and learning them) again and again with a willing adult.
Because of the colorful photography and graphics heavy format, the hardcover format would be a much better choice than e-book format.
Five stars, with the codicil that this is not a textbook of chemistry. It would make a superlative choice for public, classroom, or home library.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
rexlui's review against another edition
1.0
Thank you for the kind preview permission and thanks Netgalley. I have quite high expectation as Chemistry is my favorite subject in school and Mr Ball is one of my favorite science writer. Yet this is nothing more than a collection of science photos. I have to admit I am quite disappointed. That's when Theodore Gray would say been there done that. Even the photographs are quite mediocre. My two cents would be re-edit it from a photography-based coffee table book to a text-based molecule book. Otherwise, it looks like a cheap version of Gray's "Molecules: The Elements and the Architecture of Everything". Anyway, thanks for the kindness of preview permission. Hope all future success and let's bring more high quality chemistry books to the market, not just random pictures that look like stock photos. We don't need a book of random photo collection if we have google image were millions of dazzling chemistry photos is at my fingertips.
lukre's review against another edition
3.0
Thanks to NetGalley and MIT Press for the ARC
The topics this book covers are really interesting. It explains them in fairly understandable terms but at times it sort of loses it's train of thought I felt. I believe that the goal was to make the book more approachable to a wider audience, and I believe that is also the reason for my biggest complaint about this book (and I can’t believe I'm saying this)
there are entirely too many pictures here.
For each example process there are at least 4 or five photos of the same thing. So if one were to count the pages of text and pages of just photos and compare them, I'm sure that the ratio would be one to 1:1. Don't get me wrong, the photos are amazing, breath-taking even, but we didn't really need this many. I know the title is "beauty" of chemistry, but this was a bit too much.
What I loved was the "Further reading" section in each chapter. I like it when a nonfiction book sends you on further explorations of the covered topic. Very well done.
And my final complaint - there is a moment in the chapter on heat when the author talks about the wavelength of light and he says "770 to 430 millionths of a millimetre." I don't get that. Why not use the term nanometre (and in parenthesis explain this)? When in other chapters he mentions other chemical terms, he uses them and explains them of course, but he doesn't shy away from science. So why here?
Don't know.
All in all, I'd recommend this book to people who are interested in the amazingly beautiful world of chemistry.
The topics this book covers are really interesting. It explains them in fairly understandable terms but at times it sort of loses it's train of thought I felt. I believe that the goal was to make the book more approachable to a wider audience, and I believe that is also the reason for my biggest complaint about this book (and I can’t believe I'm saying this)
there are entirely too many pictures here.
For each example process there are at least 4 or five photos of the same thing. So if one were to count the pages of text and pages of just photos and compare them, I'm sure that the ratio would be one to 1:1. Don't get me wrong, the photos are amazing, breath-taking even, but we didn't really need this many. I know the title is "beauty" of chemistry, but this was a bit too much.
What I loved was the "Further reading" section in each chapter. I like it when a nonfiction book sends you on further explorations of the covered topic. Very well done.
And my final complaint - there is a moment in the chapter on heat when the author talks about the wavelength of light and he says "770 to 430 millionths of a millimetre." I don't get that. Why not use the term nanometre (and in parenthesis explain this)? When in other chapters he mentions other chemical terms, he uses them and explains them of course, but he doesn't shy away from science. So why here?
Don't know.
All in all, I'd recommend this book to people who are interested in the amazingly beautiful world of chemistry.
nv6acaat's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
I had to steal the iPad to appreciate the photos! These sorts of books obviously don't cut it on a monochrome e-reader!
More...