What is Chemistry?

This is a wonderful littlebook that does great service

to chemistry by showing itsmany good aspects. There are very

few chemists or science writers whopopularize chemistry and write about its

beauty, utility, and importance. RoaldHoffmann did that in his many books and

essays (such as The same and not the same,Chemistry imagined, and so on). Philip Ballwrote about the “beautiful experiments inchemistry” in his book Elegant Solutions, HughAldersey-Williams wrote about the cultural historyof the elements in his book Periodic Tales, NatalieAngier wrote about chemistry and the structure ofthe atom in her book The Canon. Even Icontributed my share, in the essay “Chemistry—ACentral Pillar of Human Culture” [1]. However,this book is different in its approach. It reads likea speech of a great orator or an advocatespeaking to the public, his grand jury. In thepreface, Atkins states that chemistry appearssmelly and awful, and he wants to change thisand show that chemistry contributes to culture,and that if we take chemistry away the result isa human disaster—“life would be nasty, brutishand short”. The end of the book is the end ofthe speech, and Atkins writes: “I hope thesepages have erased to some extent thosememories that might have contaminated yourvision of the extraordinary subject, and that youhave shared a little of that pleasure [thatmodern chemistry inspires].” Atkins uses in his“speech” a lean language, laden with condensedinformation, and thus it reads like an explosivepoetry: compelling, intense, and beautiful.

The book consists of seven chapters (like the“seven pillars of wisdom”—Proverbs, Chapter 9,Verse 1?), which start with the origins of chemistryand end by discussing its future. Chapter 1 dealswith alchemy, which provided the “compost fromwhich real science emerged”. Atkins discusses therole of balance, and how this led eventually toatoms, “the currency of chemistry”. He then goeson to explain what he means by that: “Look at atree: you are seeing atoms. Look at this page: youare seeing atoms. Touch your face: you are touchingatoms. All is chemistry …”. He then discusses thebranches of chemistry and explains them succinctly.One aspect that may annoy some readers isAtkins�s hierarchy of sciences: chemistry importsfrom physics, and “biology is an elaboration ofchemistry”. I doubt whether many biologists wouldagree. I think this reductionist approach ignores thespecial aspects of biology, which makes it distinctfrom chemistry. Chemists such as Pauling havecontributed to the creation of chemical biology, but

biology is not just an elaboration of chemistry, inthe same way as chemistry is not an elaboration ofphysics.

Chapter 2 discusses the principles and conceptsof chemistry. Here Atkins starts with the PeriodicTable, which “summarizes relationships betweenelements and plays a crucial role in organizinginformation about them”. He then discusses themodel of the “nuclear atom”, and uses the meta-phor of a football in a football stadium (thispowerful metaphor has also been used by Angierand by this reviewer). Then Atkins explains howthe proton becomes the organizing quantity of theTable (here I have to differ, since I think theelectron is the organizing quantity of the PeriodicTable and of the whole of chemistry). Atkins thensteps into quantum mechanics, and in a few boldbrush strokes he discusses the atom in terms of“clouds of probability” and the “creation” of shellstructure, which ultimately explains “periodicityand familial relationships [among atoms]”. Basedon the shell structure, he explains the various bondtypes: ionic (the ions pull one another by electro-static attractions), covalent (by spin locking), andmetallic (waves of the electron sea).

Chapter 3 focuses on the principles of chemis-try: energy and entropy. He calls energy “a river ofunderstanding in chemistry”. He then states the 1stLaw (the energy of the universe is constant), andthe 2nd Law (the quality of the energy degrades inany process—the entropy increases). He maintainsthat only reactions that result in degradation ofenergy can occur naturally, and he argues againstthe chemist�s view that reactions occur when theenergy is reduced. Although Atkins prefers hisinterpretation of the “driving force” of chemicalprocesses, he admits that the chemist�s rule ofthumb works. Furthermore, because of the shellstructure of the atom, energy is also the organizerof the Periodic Table. He discusses endothermicreactions, which clearly occur because of the 2ndLaw, and adds: “often the two [energy and entropy]lead to the same conclusion, but in all cases entropyis the property to consider.” I found this part to besomewhat dense, and lacking the flow of the rest ofthe book. In the last part of the chapter, Atkinsdiscusses reaction kinetics and mechanisms, andhow chemists detect an energy barrier (usingtemperature changes). He then moves on tocatalysis and states that “life is the embodimentof catalysis”. He explains equilibrium as a dynamicstate, and describes how Haber and Bosch tiltedthis equilibrium, and “in so doing fed the world”.

In Chapter 4, Atkins defines four basic pro-cesses, which typify all chemical reactions: electrontransfer, proton transfer, radical transfer, and two-electron reactions (such as Lewis base reactions,which bring color in complexes). This may be fine,but what about cycloadditions? He ends the

What is Chemistry?By Peter Atkins. OxfordUniversity Press, Oxford,2013. 144 pp., hardcover,£ 11.99.—ISBN 978-0199683987

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chapter with a discussion of chemical synthesis,especially in organic chemistry.

Chapter 5 is devoted to the various techniques ofchemistry, starting from the techniques of thealchemists, and continuing all the way to modernones such as chromatography, spectroscopy, massspectrometry, NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallog-raphy, STM, AFM, combinatorial chemistry, andquantum-mechanical computations. Each techniqueis explained with one or two lucid and descriptivesentences. For example, infrared spectroscopy “… isvery helpful for analyzing groups of atoms in acomplex molecule, because a CH3 group, for instance,can waggle around with one energy and a CO group… with a different energy”. About X-ray crystallog-raphy, he writes: “In biology, structure is crucial tofunction. Structure is almost everything in chemistry…” About combinatorial synthesis, he summarizes:“[in former times,] chemists were proud to have madeand identified 10,000,000 compounds. Now theymight make several times that number in a month,and only occasionally bother to determine what theyhave made. Such is progress.”

In Chapter 6, Atkins describes the achievementsof chemistry, by starting with the statement: “Withoutchemistry we are back to the Stone Age.” He thenproceeds to tell the reader about these achievementsin a clever way: “by considering the famous elementsof antiquity: earth, air, fire and water”. Chemistry hasenabled us to use the treasures of the earth to ourbenefit, to dig up the black oil and refine it topetroleum. Yes, petroleum, which is much malignedtoday as the source of many evils. Chemists extractednitogen from the atmosphere and harnessed it to feedthe world. Chemists extracted chlorine from the seaand used it to purify water, which is “the enabler oflife”, and the creator of cities, of societies. Among themany achievements of chemistry, Atkins discusses theunderstanding of the world around us, and he endsthe chapter on a high note: “We understand, throughchemistry, the flavours of foods, the colours of fabrics,… the changing colours of foliage… Not everymoment in our lives do we need to turn on under-standing … But chemistry adds a depth to this delight,for … we can look beneath and enjoy the knowledgethat we know how things are.”

In Chapter 7, Atkins discusses the future ofchemistry, by extrapolating from the new develop-ments that are already at hand. In a breathtakingtext, he outlines an exciting chemical future. Hediscusses the potential of femto- and attosecondtechniques, of studying the chemistry of a singlemolecule or of a few molecules; for example, ittakes 275 H2O molecules to make ice. He speaksabout new forms of matter from cold chemistry, andof materials with quantum-chemical behavior fromnanoscience, which will require the development ofnew synthetic methods. He mentions that some

such materials have already been made and incor-porated into solar cells, and used as sensors ofglucose in the blood. He lists the nanorods, nano-wires, and nanotubes that have been created, andcould in future be integrated into nanomachinesand nanocomputers. He describes how chemistshave already contributed to the miniaturization ofcomputers, and adds that it is now time to progressto molecular computing, using the ability of mol-ecules to switch forms as a new form of memory.Chemists can harness reactions to be used as inputand as output, e.g., by light emission (and, I wouldadd, why not also heat emission to be used inquantum computing?). As an example of datastorage, Atkins mentions DNA, and adds that whenthese data are retrieved it produces an organism. Inmy view, the DNA does not merely store data—itstores the entire software for making the organism.In fact, the recent success of the Venter group tosynthesize this software, so that when introducedinto the cell it produced the organism (as high-lighted recently in Angewandte Chemie[2]), is ahugely important advance, with biologists/chemistsplaying God. Atkins then goes on to mention thefuture role of chemists in deciphering how “mem-ories”, which are certainly chemical in nature, arebeing encoded. He discusses the development ofproteomics for eradicating human disease, and ofcatalysis for better engines. (Also, in my view,computational chemistry, which is mentioned hereonly in passing as a companion tool to proteomics,will play a major role in many fundamentaldevelopments in chemistry). Finally, Atkins writesabout the future role of fundamental research inchemistry. According to him, “Fundamentalresearch is absolutely vital … for it leads on tounforeseen discoveries, … and unforeseen applica-tions of extraordinary brilliance”. He mentions therecent discovery of molecular triple-4-knots innature, and ends by commenting: “Such is the joy,the intellectual pleasure, that modern chemistryinspires.”

Here and there I have added my own com-ments, but not as criticism. However, my mainpoint of criticism is that this wonderful little bookdoes not have literature references. I found that tobe a disadvantage.

Sason ShaikDepartment of Organic ChemistryHebrew University, Jerusalem (Israel)

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201400523

[1] S. Shaik, Angew. Chem. 2003, 115, 3326; Angew.Chem. Int. Ed. 2003, 42, 3208

[2] U. T. Bornscheuer, Angew. Chem. 2010, 122, 5357;Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 5228

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