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1. The Same and Not the Same by Roald Hoffmann | |
Paperback: 294
Pages
(1997-04-15)
list price: US$35.50 -- used & new: US$15.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0231101392 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (3)
The Same and Not the Same
The Philosophy, Artistry, and Humanity of Chemistry Roald Hoffman has several objectives in this book: to lift chemistry from zealous physical reductionism, to show the artistic side of chemistry, to show the humanity of chemistry, and -of course, throughout- to present chemistry. Regarding reductionism, Hoffman argues essentially this: Quantum physics does not reduce chemistry to a rich Lego Set where chemists just permute new combinations of atoms.What mother worries about solving a wave equation when enjoying the experience of her newborn?Physics may describe all phenomena, but its descriptions are unsatisfactory with increasing layers of abstraction; chemistry is one of these abstractions. Hoffman lifts chemistry from reductionism by simply presenting what chemists deal with everyday.Many of these questions have an epistemological flavor to them.For instance, what molecules make up this substance?How do I know for sure that this molecule that I have synthesized is exactly the one found in nature?In what manner does a chemical reaction proceed, e.g., what are the reactionary intermediate molecules on the way to the final product?What is the best way to represent this molecule on paper?This more philosophical presentation of chemistry, preserves the book from being `stale' as more test tube chem books may suffer from.It is also easy to see that these questions do not involve a bit of quantum physics at all. Perhaps unique among the sciences, chemistry creates itself with every new reaction mechanism >imagined<, and every new molecule synthesized.Because of that, Hoffman argues, chemistry is much closer to the Arts than any other science.He then explores this in depth, showing us the steps to synthesizing cubane, a beautifully simple carbon molecule that looks like a cube.And he shows us what makes a synthesis beautiful in the eyes of a chemist.It can be a visual aesthetic, a devilishly ingenious synthesis mechanism, a new way to create greater yields, and so on. Presenting the humanity of chemistry is just as important to Hoffman as chemistry's Art, and it's rescue from reductionism. So not only does Hoffman show us how chemistry is much like the Arts, he also presents some of the moral dilemma's that many chemists face.A chemical can bestow great benefit and at the same time cause a lot of harm.A few examples that he gives revolve about synthetic growth hormones and insecticide.Particularly nice is how he personally reacts as a chemist and lay person.Perhaps the best example is his chapter on the great chemist Haber who represents the paradoxes of chemistry.So peppered throughout, Hoffman gives his personal view that chemistry and it's surrounding community must face, which makes his second objective (humanity) that much better, and in addition gives the book a very warm style. But now, let's move on to the negatives, and I hope you don't skip them, because I believe it will enhance your reading of this book. Superficially, Hoffman paints a broad stroke of chemistry and at times gets off the topic.But, the biggest problem with the book is that Hoffman unintentionally puts up a smokescreen.He wants to show that chemistry is not just merely an academic application of physics, but an endeavor in its own right.By just explaining and presenting chemistry as he did, he did a splendid job. However, Hoffman peppers his book with `diatribes' against radical reductionism (those who choose to reduce chemistry to physics.)This really detracts from the beauty of the rest of the book, because the readers are then expecting a direct redressing of the criticism; when none is offered, the beauty of the rest of the book is diminished, because they are left scratching their heads. The analogy is this. Suppose I will emotionally rebut the reductionists trying to reduce motherhood to physics.Then, I proceed to >just< explain motherhood.And that is all.Chances are, since my argument in no way mentions physics again, it will detract you from appreciating fully the subject I presented.This is how I felt for a good deal of Hoffman's book.Now, you won't make that mistake. Remember, Hoffman's argument is self evident in the chemistry he presents. So who would appreciate this book?I believe first year chemists, and students thinking of making chemistry their careers would gain a lot from this book.However, the book is broad enough to appeal to those who have a passing interest in science.In fact, it is those people who have a passing interest in science who might like it more than science fans that may have wanted a more `test-tube' book. Let me end by giving Hoffman's example of -what seemed to me- the embodiment of the book.In a chapter he shows the struggle every chemist faces when dealing with his pears.The debates can be heated and down right nasty, and dare I say, unprofessional.Hoffman gives lengthy quotes from anonymous peers reviewing papers he submitted to respected chemistry journals. It is a showing of the insecurities that all of us have, and equally, it is an intimate look at the lives chemists.It's quite unique from any book I've read on science.So, take this book in its entirety: with all of the artistry, science, and philosophy; its trivial mistakes, and over emotional ones.What emerges is a warm, comfortably familiar human touch.
Illuminating and Facinating - A Wonderful Presentation |
2. Chemistry Imagined Reflections on Science by Roald Hoffmann, Vivian Torrence | |
Paperback: 168
Pages
(1995-02-17)
list price: US$19.95 Isbn: 1560985399 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (1)
Chemistry Imagined |
3. Solids and Surfaces: A Chemist's View of Bonding in Extended Structures by Roald Hoffmann | |
Hardcover: 152
Pages
(1989-01-13)
list price: US$140.00 -- used & new: US$100.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0471187100 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (4)
very enlightening!
Conceptually brilliant !
A straightforward, visual examination of a difficult subject I'm not sure if physicists, starting from the otherend of the language will find it as useful as a chemist, but it should bestraightforward for them as well, giving them the chemist's point of view(language). This is a short book, and wisely does not try to exceed itsboundries, that of an introduction/overview.For a more mathematicaltreatment, I would suggest Burdett's "Chemical Bonding inSolids."If you only want an introduction written in plain languagewith lots of graphics, this is the book for you.
Every chemist needs to read this! |
4. Oxygen by Carl Djerassi, Roald Hoffmann | |
Paperback: 128
Pages
(2001-02-22)
list price: US$27.50 -- used & new: US$16.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 3527304134 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (2)
A Breath of Fresh Air "Oxygen" offers an insider's glimpse into two facets of science often shrouded in mystery, but filled with expressions of human splendor--and folly:the struggle for recognition of ones scientific discoveries and the awarding of a Nobel Prize for discoveries deemed singularly important. The playwrights, Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffmann, have each contributed their own singular scientific discoveries and literary creations to the world.They use the occasion of the centenary of the Nobel Prizes to mirror fictional experiences involving the historical chemists Lavoisier, Priestley, and Scheele--and the women in their lives--with the arguments and self-reflections of a committee of modern-day Swedish scientists trying to award a retro-Nobel for the most important discovery in chemistry before 1901. Both sets of characters, those of the 18th Century who discovered oxygen and those of the 21st who seek to honor that discovery, act out the passions that drive the men and women who pursue science--and do so in ways at home in either century.The play reveals to the reader, whether a student of science (of any age) or not, the issues and emotions that underlie a scientist's compulsion to question, and hopefully to understand, the workings of the natural world, all the while striving for primacy in discovery.The book offers a voyage of discovery worth taking.
2001- A Chemical Odyssey The authors of this play comfortably inhabit both of C.P. Snow's "Two Cultures". Roald Hoffmann is a winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Carl Djerassi performed the first synthesis of a steroid oral contraceptive. Prior to "Oxygen", Hoffmann had published widely acclaimed poetry and other "cross cultural books" for scientists and non-scientists while Djerassi had published successful novels as well as a play and a book of poems. Nobel Prizes are awarded to living practioners and the practice has been, where sharing is appropriate- usually in the sciences- no more than three co-awardees. But in 2001, the hundredth anniversary of the Nobel Prize, Astrid Rosenquist, the first female chair of a chemistry Nobel committee springs two surprises on her three male committee members. The first is that the Swedish Academy of Sciences will begin a new Retro-Nobel Prize for early discoveries. The second is the participation of a mysterious and alluring recorder or "amanuensis" named Ulla Zorn. The play alternates scenes between the Court of King Carl Gustav the Third and the Stockholm of 2001. The discussion of candidates by the modern committee rapidly converges to the discovery of oxygen and the understanding of fire that transformed chemistry into a modern science. The problem is this-we now know that Scheele first discovered oxygen around 1771-2; Priestley discovered it totally independently in 1774, disclosed his discovery to Lavoisier during a visit to Paris in that year and published first. History proves that Scheele also disclosed his discovery in a letter addressed to Lavoisier two weeks before Priestley's visit. Lavoisier never responded to Scheele's letter. But Priestley and Scheele did not understand the significance of their discovery. They believed that the new "fire air" sucked an essence of fire (phlogiston) from burning matter. It was Lavoisier who understood that burning, rusting and respiration all involved addition of oxygen (oxidation) rather than loss of something to the air. One committee member, Bengt Hjalmarsson, is reasonably fluent in French and is assigned Lavoisier. Scheele is assigned to Sune Kallstenius, comfortable in the German language frequently employed by Scheele. Ulf Svanholm is assigned Priestley. Not surprisingly they each become advocates for their "charges". But other human frailties emerge. Bengt and Astrid have a history. Ulf harbors a grudge against Sune, who he is convinced, caused him to be "scooped" on his major discovery. The stage has been set to play off the issues of scientific priority, ambition and motivation, complicated by human passions, among powerful women and men of the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries. Indeed, it is the women who, according to Ms Zorn, are "...usually expected to clean up the dirt" and so they do by clarifying history and moving the modern committee to an acceptable concensus. The issue of priority for the discovery of oxygen is to be settled in The Judgement of Stockholm. Did Lavoisier, Scheele and Priestley ever meet together? Probably not- but what an exciting thought. And in the best tradition of modern science, the critical experiments of one must be performed by another. There are thrilling scenes here: Lavoisier performing Scheele's generation of "fire-air" under the latter's supervision; Antoine confiding his intuition about Scheele to Marie ("I trust him"); Joseph to Mary about Scheele ("I trust him"); Carl Wilhelm to Fru Pohl on Lavoisier ("I do not trust him"). And there is an extra bonus. There is evidence that to celebrate their chemical revolution, Antoine and Marie performed a brief play or masque. Alas, the script, if one ever existed in writing, is unknown. But Djerassi and Hoffmann offer us a delight- Marie, as "oxygen" publicly humiliates and vanquishes Antoine, as "phlogiston", in a performance witnessed, with amusement, by King Carl Gustav and with increasing discomfort and then consternation by the Priestleys, Scheele and Fru Pohl. The twists, surprises and the denouement will be left for the discovery of the reader. The authors have succeeded wonderfully in combining solid history, with the informed nuances and rich humor of two of the world's most accomplished scientists. Hoffmann and Djerassi do not recognize the boundaries of the "Two Cultures" and readers of this play will be the richer as a result. One last thought- the number of actors in this play is quite small and the settings simple. A reading of the play can be readily staged by high school or college chemistry classes. What a way to enliven chemical history and bridge the sciences, humanities and fine arts! ... Read more |
5. The Metamict State (Contemporary Poetry Series) by Roald Hoffmann | |
Hardcover: 120
Pages
(1987-10)
list price: US$16.95 -- used & new: US$3.49 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0813008697 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
6. Soliton: Poems (New Odyssey Series) by Roald Hoffmann | |
Paperback: 86
Pages
(2002-09)
list price: US$14.95 -- used & new: US$13.22 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1931112193 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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7. Gaps and Verges (Contemporary Poetry Series) by Roald Hoffmann | |
Hardcover: 108
Pages
(1990-02-01)
list price: US$19.95 -- used & new: US$14.63 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 081300943X Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
8. Memory Effects by Roald Hoffmann | |
Paperback: 80
Pages
(1999-04-01)
list price: US$9.00 Isbn: 0932026435 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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9. Old Wine New Flasks: Reflections on Science and Jewish Tradition by Roald Hoffmann, Shira Leibowitz Schmidt | |
Hardcover: 362
Pages
(1997-08-31)
list price: US$28.95 -- used & new: US$23.73 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B000IOEO9Q Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
Editorial Review Product Description Customer Reviews (2)
The book has a mind widening effect Sh. Leibowitz's deep knowledge of thebyblical books and commentaries, and R.Hoffmann's extensive knowledge inChemistry, Physics, Art, and Poetry, make up a very rich treasure box fromwhere they have picked up different items, which then they developed astrees with many branches, by connecting or associating ideas. The treemetaphor also helps to express the divergent nature of their writing,without a specific idea to lay out, expose, prove, or simply develop. Thischaracteristic in the process of the writing and specially the selection ofitems (somewhat by chance it seems), leaves the reader too much to himself,finding value in the text by his or her own wonderings, given that there isno conclusion established for the various links. It is a differentstyle, most writers aim to convince, they guide the reader with frequentreminders as returningto the point of departure, or flashbacks to see thepath followed. In this book R.H and Sh.L. only draw a picture with elementsof two cultures, they express an open minded view of reality, and ofknowledge, as something that is built by each person with the materials athand. It's difficult to say what is it that one has learned afterreading them, in the classical way, but there is a feeling of havingtravelled from the beginning of man's thought through the minds of manythoughtful men and women till our days, there is a feeling of the mindwidenning, of an alertness that was not there before.
Talmudical |
10. Essays of an Information Scientist: Creativity, Delayed Recognition, and other essays, Vol:12, 1989 by Eugene Garfield | |
Hardcover: 385
Pages
(1989-06)
list price: US$32.50 -- used & new: US$32.50 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 0894950851 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
11. Strained Hydrocarbons: Beyond the van't Hoff and Le Bel Hypothesis | |
Hardcover: 492
Pages
(2009-05-26)
list price: US$245.00 -- used & new: US$165.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 3527317678 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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12. Oxygen/Deutsche Ausgabe (German Edition) by Roald Hoffmann | |
Paperback: 146
Pages
(2001-12)
list price: US$15.00 -- used & new: US$85.45 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 3527304606 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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13. Beyond the Finite: The Sublime in Art and Science by Roald Hoffmann, Iain Boyd Whyte | |
Hardcover: 208
Pages
(2011-05-10)
list price: US$24.95 -- used & new: US$16.83 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 019973769X Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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14. Computational Chemistry of Solid State Materials: A Guide for Materials Scientists, Chemists, Physicists and others by Richard Dronskowski | |
Hardcover: 300
Pages
(2006-03-13)
list price: US$155.00 -- used & new: US$90.36 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 3527314105 Average Customer Review: Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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Chemists view of Materials
Best Computational Cehm Book Ever!! |
15. Chemical Sciences in the 20th Century: Bridging Boundaries | |
Hardcover: 297
Pages
(2001-05-28)
list price: US$145.00 -- used & new: US$113.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 3527302719 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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16. Ukrainian Nobel Laureates: Roald Hoffmann, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Selman Waksman, Simon Kuznets | |
Paperback: 28
Pages
(2010-09-15)
list price: US$14.14 -- used & new: US$14.13 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1156265339 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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17. Galician Jews: Stanislaw Ulam, Roald Hoffmann, Billy Wilder, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Karl Radek, Hugo Steinhaus, Melanie Klein | |
Paperback: 754
Pages
(2010-09-15)
list price: US$79.92 -- used & new: US$79.92 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1157701523 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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18. Ukrainian-American Jews: Noam Chomsky, Isaac Stern, Roald Hoffmann, Fred Savage, Danny Kaye, Leonard Nimoy, Norman Granz, Bugsy Siegel | |
Paperback: 480
Pages
(2010-09-15)
list price: US$54.48 -- used & new: US$54.48 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1155603958 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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19. Biography - Hoffmann, Roald (1937-): An article from: Contemporary Authors by Gale Reference Team | |
Digital: 4
Pages
(2002-01-01)
list price: US$9.95 -- used & new: US$9.95 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B0007SGQ5S Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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20. Roald Hoffmann | |
Paperback: 150
Pages
(2010-08-03)
list price: US$59.00 -- used & new: US$58.99 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 6131106576 Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan | |
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