The Beauty of Chemistry Art, Wonder, and Science

Images and text capture the astonishing beauty of the chemical processes that create snowflakes, bubbles, flames, and other wonders of nature.

Chemistry is not just about microscopic atoms doing inscrutable things; it is the process that makes flowers and galaxies. We rely on it for bread-baking, vegetable-growing, and producing the materials of daily life. In stunning images and illuminating text, this book captures chemistry as it unfolds. Using such techniques as microphotography, time-lapse photography, and infrared thermal imaging, The Beauty of Chemistry shows us how chemistry underpins the formation of snowflakes, the science of champagne, the colors of flowers, and other wonders of nature and technology. We see the marvelous configurations of chemical gardens; the amazing transformations of evaporation, distillation, and precipitation; heat made visible; and more.

Philip Ball is the author of many critically acclaimed books of popular science, including Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another, The Elements: A Very Short Introduction, and Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different. Wenting Zhu is an artist, designer, and photographer. Yan Liang is Associate Professor at the University of Science and Technology of China and the founder and producer of the educational brand Beauty of Science. He has worked as a science animator and illustrator.

ELEMENTAL: THE CHARISMA OF CHEMISTRY 1
1 EFFERVESCENT: THE BEAUTY OF BUBBLES 7
2 ORDERLY: THE CHARM OF CRYSTALS 39
3 INSOLUBLE: THE POWER OF PRECIPITATION 79
4 EXUBERANT: THE DELIGHT OF DENDRITIC GROWTH 113
5 INCENDIARY: THE FASCINATION OF FLAMES
6 GALVANIZING: THE ENCHANTMENT OF ELECTROCHEMISTRY
7 CHROMATIC: THE CURIOSITY OF COLOR CHANGES IN PLANTS
8 CALESCENT: THE HELPFULNESS OF HEAT
9 ORGANIC: THE CONTORTIONS OF CHEMICAL GARDENS
10 CREATIVE: THE PROFUSION OF PATTERNS
POSTSCRIPT: ART, WONDER, AND SCIENCE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
APPENDIX: MOLECULES AND STRUCTURES
GLOSSARY