[Schrödinger]

So I've been dying to start a new book, a new adventure, if you will. I'm sick and tired of thrillers and I was perusing through the web to find popular science books. And there is an overwhelming majority of books on Physics, Astronomy, Genetics, Evolution, Medicine. It's frustratingly sad that there aren't many on chemistry. Atleast I haven't been able to find many.

I have seen a couple, though. For instance, Sam Kean's 'The Disappearing Spoon', books by Eric Scerri, (which are all about the periodic table for some reason), books by Philip Ball. Are there any popular chemistry authors? Distinguished ones like say, Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan,  Stephen Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins? Why is it so hard to find such books and authors for chemistry?

Book/author suggestions, people?

[curiouscat]

What Went Wrong? (Case Histories of Process Plant Disasters) ------ Trevor Kletz

I admit my tastes are non-median. But I love books like these.

Besides, it does read like a thriller. There's a bang-boom on almost every other page.

[Schrödinger]

I'm guessing you're the guy who reads the MSDS

[408]

Take a look at a reprint of Marie curie's "radioactive substances"...reads like a story, some cool history, and funny things

" So I taped some radium chloride to my arm, it blistered and took 2 months to heal"

[curiouscat]

I'm guessing you're the guy who reads the MSDS

Noo. Those are boring.

Really, this is exciting stuff. There's  a difference between living  in fear of conceivable potential harm and being awestruck by actually realized stupidity and the resultant spectacular catastrophe. 

Reading something on the lines of "The blast left a crater 30 feet deep" or "The half ton valve was subsequently found in a barn 3 kilometers away" or "The event was recorded by a seismograph in Alaska" does make one open eyes a bit wider.   

[curiouscat]

My favorite industrial catastrophe though is non-chemical, about a drilling company down south that had bad geological maps and subsequently managed to rupture the roof of a salt-mine and thus drain a pretty large lake completely down the mine.

Not only did it get sued by owners of both the mine and the lake but the descriptions are vivid about a developing roaring whirpool, the drilling crews fleeing in terror,  and recreational boaters and fishers furiously paddling away from raging vortex to avoid getting sucked down to a sub-terrain grave.

[AWK]

John Emsley
some books of Peter Atkins

[Schrödinger]

John Emsley yes. I'd totally forgotten about him. If I'm not wrong, he's written books on the history of poison, murder and the like..

Keep 'em coming, though

[Corribus]

This one wasn't too bad:

http://www.amazon.com/Napoleons-Buttons-Molecules-Changed-History/dp/1585423319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371059028&sr=8-1&keywords=napoleon%27s+buttons

Nor this one:

http://www.amazon.com/13th-Element-Sordid-Murder-Phosphorus/dp/047144149X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371059067&sr=1-1&keywords=phosphorous

And this is one was fantastic:

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-25th-Anniversary/dp/1451677618/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371059104&sr=1-1&keywords=richard+rhodes

Peter Atkins' Creation Revisted was an interesting read.  And I'm also fond of Jared Diamond, although his books are anthropology.

[Dan]

I've not read many chemistry pop science books (mainly because I've not seen many - looking forward to seeing how this thread develops), but I enjoyed Luca Turin's "The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell".

If you're interested in physical organic chemistry it is a good read.

[Schrödinger]

I'm currently reading Sam Kean's 'The Disappearing Spoon' and it's been good so far.

@Corribus : If I'm not wrong, Atkins had written 'Creation' before Creation revisited. Does it matter which one I read first? I mean, does Atkins build on the premise of the first, in his second?

[Corribus]

I believe, but could be totally wrong, that Creation Revisted was more of an update of his original than a new, stand alone work.  In any case, I only ever read Creation Revisted and would never have known there was something that came before.

[Yggdrasil]

I've always liked Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John D Clark.  It's unfortunately out of print, but with Google you can find pdf copies floating around the internet.

[curiouscat]

I've always liked Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John D Clark.  It's unfortunately out of print, but with Google you can find pdf copies floating around the internet.

Here's one source:

http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf

I happen to be in the midst of it right now. Great book.

[scerri]

I'm Eric Scerri.  Thanks for mentioning my books in this forum.

Schrodinger is puzzled as to why I might write books on the periodic table.  Surely not so puzzling given that the periodic table is the central organizing principle of chemistry, the main paradigm, that which brings together so many different levels of knowledge and individual pieces of data.

My latest book, just out, is "A Tale of Seven Elements", also published by Oxford University Press just like my two books on the periodic table.  This latest one deals with the discovery of the last seven elements among the 1-92 boundaries of the old periodic table before any transuranium elements were synthesized.  But the final chapter is devoted to elements beyond 92.

http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Seven-Elements-Eric-Scerri/dp/0195391314/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363754314&sr=1-1&keywords=tale+of+seven+elements

There is also a feature article in the June issue of Scientific American called "Cracks in the Periodic Table" in which I discuss what the properties of the superheavy elements mean for the validity of the periodic table at very high atomic numbers.

eric scerri
UCLA