Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgements vii
4. Introduction: Engineering the Elements 1
5. Part I The Changing Tradition
6. 1 How It All Fits Together The architecture of molecules 13
7. 2 Bringing Down the Barriers Getting chemical reactions to go 54
8. 3 Caught in the Act Watching atoms dance 83
9. 4 Impossible Order When atoms meet geometry 111
10. Part II New Products, New Functions
11. 5 Perfect Hosts and Welcome Guests Molecules that recognize each other and build themselves 145
12. 6 Metals from Molecules Electronics goes organic 186
13. 7 A Soft and Sticky World The self-organizing magic of colloid chemistry 216
14. Part III Chemistry as a Process
15. 8 Chemical Beginnings How chemistry came to life 259
16. 9 Far from Stable Fractals, chaos, and complexity in chemistry 290
17. 10 Transforming the Globe The crises of atmospheric chemistry 323
18. Bibliography 351
19. Credits 363
20. Index 365