This was a very clearly written and insightful book. It was well researched and presented in an appealing format in layman's terms. He described the essence of flavors,perfumes, and other good chemicals. The best book on the importance of chemistry in everyday life that I've read.

It is definetely too bad that this book is not still in print for the public to buy! I'm 18 years old and love science, but you don't really have to be a science whiz to understand it.
What I believe is so great about this book is that it exposes the fallacies in the beliefs people have about certain chemicals, from sugar (and artifical sweeteners), cholesterol, fats, and fiber, painkillers (and other medications), PVC, dioxins, and carbon dioxide (global warming). People are misinformed by the media and even medical sources as to the dangers of these things, when many of these things are actually good for us!
This book was written from a logical viewpoint. John Emsley, who is a great author, discusses both sides of a topic, and really just makes the book interesting.
I believe it should be required reading in high school because then so many kids would be exposed to the fallacies that the media puts out about everything from sugar (It's not bad!) to body health. We as Americans believe so many things blindly without realizing the actual scientific proof. This books is great!

This is the book that I tell my students is my "bible." I use it in class in and in the preparation of my exams. The information in it is well organized and as up-to-date at it can be for the subject matter. Some of the "elements" are not there but that is because they were discovered after the publication date. I highly recommend this book to my colleagues.

This book contains a vast amount of hard-core science. Articles from many respected scientists, and others - Fred Hoyle eg. There is no manufactured consensus - simply a lot of views broadly in agreement that 'Global Warming' [ now re-badged Climate Change ] - is in fact a non-problem, and any risk should be evaluated on the scientific merits - not on random predictions made by buggy computer climate models.

A fascinating book.

Mr. Elmsley is a stylist potent enough to make what to most people is a ho-hum subject into interesting reading. As a budding chemist myself I am not of that ilk; even so a person with the least bit of curiosity about how things work will be enlightened and entertained by Elmsley's exposition about chemistry as it affects our everyday lives.

The expostion is titled in imitation of Moussorgsky's pictures at an Exposition and refers to the loose organization of essays around topics, e.g., the chemistry of polymers.

The essays are somewhat uneven, however, in terms of the energy behind their creation and, consequently, the volume of interest they might generate. These essays were created by the author over a largish period of time, as he writes a column for a British newspaper on chemical topics. The essay on penicillin, for example, is of some antiquity. And it is just here I find the greatest fault with Elmsley's writing. During the development of penicillin, which took place during the Second War, its British originators wanted to patent it, but were vetoed by their group leader on the grounds that things of great humanitarian value as this would surely prove to be should not be privatized. This is made out to be a value of the English character. Since the Islands were under Luftwaffe attack, the mass production of the first antibiotic was taken to America where the strain of mold was expropriated and patented by one of the local scientists, a dasdardly act that, of course, made him rich. SUch ruthlessness is made out to be a feature of the American character by Elmsley. Sorry, John.

I use this book to enhance my high school chemistry class. Reading from this book allows my students to see how chemistry really works in their everyday lives. They see connections and often I hear "ahh... " or "cool!" Every Monday I pick a chemical and list it on the board as "chemical of the week". We then read about them on Fridays and discuss. This book is a great way to put some real-life applications into a chemistry class.

Molecules might seem an unlikely topic for a popular work, but the author is one of those rare teachers who can breathe life into the most unpromising subject. This work is a guided tour through some of the most interesting materials on earth - or perhaps this is Emsley's art.
He has organized his subjects thematically in broad areas such as health, transport, and the environment, with eight galleries of a dozen portraits each. The history of each is traced, with information on its structure, origin, and its role in our world. Some substances, such as selenium, prove unexpectedly vital. Others, such as Sarin, the terrorists' nerve gas, began innocuously enough but have been adopted for evil purposes. Still others hold the key to the secret of chocolate, how Teflon sticks to pans, and possibly a clean, renewable fuel for the future. All are interesting.
The alchemy is Emsley's transmutation of chemistry into entertaining instruction.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

I read this book one element at a time. Organized from A to Z, it does not follow a chemically logical sequence, but provides varied and entertianing reading. Each element gets a little history and finishes with some interesting or funny story about it. This is a pleasurable read and I will hang on to it to use as a simple reference book for my grade school aged children

This book is as great as all the other reviewers say. It's the kind of book that's fun to explore -- each entry is self contained, and there are also a few short sections on the elements in general (for example, a history of the periodic table).

The only negative comment I have is the poor copy editing. There are numerous spelling and grammatical errors. In the periodic table section alone, on one page, there were three spelling errors and three numerical errors. Needless to say, this is a especially problematic with a reference work...

This book is so much fun to read. Some might consider it not scientific enough, but for me, a person that reads a lot of scientific materials, it was a welcome change of pace. Emsley gathered many interesting facts about each element and presents them in a very delightful and organized manner. I put the book on my night stand and use it as bed-time story book. It's that good.

This was first published in Great Britain with the title The Shocking History of Phosphorus. Even with such a provocative title one might wonder how a book devoted to a single chemical element could find commercial success. The fact that the book has now been published in the United States and Canada suggests that author John Emsley knows what he is doing. He reduces the dry chemistry to a minimum and accentuates the sordid details, making this an interesting read.

Emsley begins with alchemy in the seventeenth century and how phosphorus was first manufactured from copious pots of urine, and how the small amounts obtained were used in demonstrations before royalty. By the by we gain some historical insight into the lives of the European alchemists and their methods. Emsley then delves into the medical use of phosphorus, proscribed for ailments as diverse as TB and melancholia, for which it worthless. Indeed it was worthless for all prescriptions. (Maybe this is how homoepathy began: a vanishingly dilute prescription of phosphorus would be an improvement on the standard dosage!) Phosphorus was even seen as an aphrodisiac.

The production of phosphorus really took off in the early nineteenth century with invention of the phosphorus match, aptly named "the lucifer." I thought this was the most interesting part of the book, bringing to mind a world before we had matches and fires had to kept going or started with flint and tender, or perhaps borrowed from your neighbor. Emsley writes that by the end of the nineteenth century "three trillion phosphorus matches were being struck every year" (p. 65). He emphasizes the word "trillion." Next Emsley tells the sad, ugly tale of how the matches were manufactured by children and women sixty hours a week in sweat shop conditions at subsistence wages (if that), and how many of the workers contacted phossy jaw, a disease caused by phosphorus that rots the teeth and jaw and can lead to deformity or death. Then comes the story of Annie Besant and the Salvation Army whose efforts greatly improved the conditions of the workers.

Ah, but the worst is to come. As World War I approached we clever people discovered that poisoned gas and incendiary bombs could be made from phosphorus, and so a new horror was ushered in. Finally though, in the latter chapters we see how phosphorus is used in fertilizers and dishwashing detergents. Emsley discusses some of the problems associated with their use. He also goes into how and why our bodies need phosphorus and its role in nutrition. The "phosporus cycle" is discussed and the rather bizarre phenomenon of "spontaneous human combustion" is looked into.

Bottom line: this is eye-opening read about an element that has had a major impact on human history for both good and evil, a history that is continuing. (Incidentally, phosphorus was the thirteenth element discovered, element fifteen of the periodic table, thus the somewhat misleading title.)

This book was first published last year in England under the title 'The Shocking History of Phosphorus'. However, its US publishers decided to call it 'The 13th element' because it was the 13th element to be discovered, and I mention this in the book. I am aware that the atomic number of phosphorus is 15 - indeed I wrote a text book devoted entirely to phosphorus chemistry more than 20 years ago - and I am sorry if this has caused some readers to think that I have got my chemistry wrong.

Now, how could an entire book (over 350 pages no less) about phosphorus be interesting? It glows in the dark, it oxidizes on contact with air, it's an essential element, compounds of phosphorus are used in fertilizers and there was something about pollution several years ago. That about covers it, right? Well, actually not quite. Even though I am a chemist by profession, I was surprised to find out about (among other things) the huge fortunes built on the match business and the connection of these enterprises to the first appearance of organized labour movements. Also, how many are aware that the whole condemnation of phosphate detergents may have been completely misguided?

Emsley has created a thoroughly engrossing tale of the discovery and use of one of the more common elements on our planet as well as being able to include a sizable amount of solid scientific information in a thoroughly engrossing form. Other reviewers have outlined in some detail the contents of this book but let me emphasize that the "science" never gets in the way of the narrative. Anyone who has even a passing interest in natural science should find this book an excellent read. I purchased this book in hardback form some time ago but have given a couple of the paperback copies away to friends and have not gotten a negative response yet.

a good book, very sintetic and clear. To me you have to read this absolutely.

At last - information on how, naturally occurring, food chemicals can make you ill. The food chemicals covered include amines, salicylates, caffeine, sulfur, MSG and lectins. If you are convinced that food is in some way making you ill but allergy tests and traditional elimination diets have shown up nothing then this is the book for you.

You'll discover how even the 'healthiest' of foods such as fruit and vegetables can be toxic to some people. You'll also find out about natural toxins including, among many others, mad honey disease, mushroom and mold toxins. There are also sections on food additives and advice on vitamins. And chapters on alcohol and on the important role the gut has to play.

I myself am salicylate sensitive and there is so little information generally available that I wholly applaud John Emsley and Peter Fell for making this information available.

The only down side is that, although they present details of food chemicals and very useful case histories to illustrate the type of health problems that can be caused by these, they don't give much guidance on how to test for a sensitivity to these chemicals. But still, an excellent starting place.

The book is clearly written and easy to read. An absolute must for anyone concerned about food chemicals.

This book presents a very informative introduction to foods that make people sick. The authors, a university chemistry professor and an allergist MD are quite knowledgeable. They present the mainstream scientific research on food intolerance in a way that is easy to comprehend for the general reader. Dr. Emsley's interest in chemistry is evident throughout the book as he explains the biochemistry of what happens to the food we put in our bodies as well as the chemistry behind food intolerance symptoms.

Emsley and Fell are very clear on what is a food allergy and what is not. They explain that a person is properly said to have an allergy to food only if his or her immune system is involved in a negative response, and that true food allergies are not very common. On the other hand, many other people, perhaps as many as 20%, are intolerant of certain foods. According to the authors, this intolerance is because they lack the ability to break down the food into usable chemical substances. Food intolerance can cause many of the same symptoms as food allergies, but it is also implicated in such problems as headaches or mood disorders; in rare occasions, food intolerance attacks can even be fatal.

With their definition of food intolerance as any situation where the body is overwhelmed by the chemicals in what has been consumed, the authors go beyond standard "problem foods" identified in other books on the topic (such as biogenic amines, salicylates, and sulfites). For example, they discuss how alcohol is broken down chemically in the body, and the chemistry behind drunkenness and hangovers. They also discuss the toxins involved in food poisoning, a very extreme type of intolerance reaction that everyone is susceptible to.

Overall, I found this book highly informative, much more so than books that lump all food problems into the allergy category. The book includes a brief guide to nutrition and food for a healthy lifestyle, but these sections seem almost an afterthought. The book doesn't include a special diet or treatment plan. Instead, its main strength is the scientific explanations of what happens in a food intolerance attack. I think it will go a long way towards helping me understand why I can nibble some foods, but not indulge freely. In general, it's great for patient information, but MDs and naturopaths may also find much of interest.