Avogadro’s Lab
In this issue: Chemistry communications
The Mole team on the role of reading and developing
good communication skills
Communications play an important role in our lives as chemists. We need to read to find things out and to keep
up to date with new research and developments. We also need to record experimental findings accurately and
comprehensively so they can be understood by others. You don’t always need to read textbooks and journals to
keep informed and develop your communication skills. We have picked out a couple of books which should open
your eyes and mind to some of the weirder aspects of chemistry. These should dispel any myths that science is
boring and give you something worth discussing with your friends!
Electrified sheep
Alex Boese
Paperback: £8.39
Kindle: £4.96
http://amzn.to/MByKog
Free radicals: The secret
anarchy of science
Michael Brooks
Paperback: £5.12 | Kindle £4.86
http://amzn.to/TjIoLg
For those looking for a sensible
book concerning scientific
excellence, be warned –
you have picked the wrong
book! Electrified sheep quite
brilliantly explains some of
the more bizarre experiments performed in the name of
scientific discovery with lashings of intellectual humour
and a surprising amount of quality storytelling.
The premise of Free radicals
is to dispel the perception
that scientists are boring,
method-bound and inhuman –
unaffected by the randomness
of life; that scientific discoveries
are born from rigorous, formalised and methodical work,
under a strict set of rules known as the ‘scientific method’;
and scientists are somehow ‘different’ to normal people.
Each chapter begins with a story, some plausible, some
bordering on out of this world, but all are based on true
events and experiments. From the invention of the modern
battery, which involves questionable relations between
a man and his voltaic pile, to the creation of the optimal
chimpanzee butler and self experimentation.
Real-world science, argues Brooks, is a rough and
tumble affair, where erudite individuals buck the system
and break the rules. There are power struggles, ethical
dilemmas, substance abuse, corruption and sabotage – in
short, whatever it takes to come up with the next big thing.
He cites examples from across the gamut of sciences,
from theoretical physics – Albert Einstein using dodgy
assumptions and force of will to persuade the world of the
accuracy of his famous equation E = mc2 – to the possibly
deadly rivalry between chemists Gilbert Lewis and Irving
Langmuir that ended in Langmuir’s death from cyanide
poisoning. Suicide or murder? Perhaps we’ll never know.
The author has two rules of exclusion for the book: anyone
trying to be weird wasn’t weird enough for the book.
Also, no barbaric acts committed in the name of science
were permitted. However this doesn’t mean that it is not
without the odd disgusting bit. For example the section
Do-it-yourselfers is a rather more sinister approach to self
experimentation that can become quite gruesome.
All these strange and unusual items are well structured
and written with each section cleverly leading onto the
next. This is a book you can pick up and read from almost
anywhere if you find a section that tickles your curiosity.
Recommended for reading while travelling, sitting, eating
or for escaping into the random world of experimental
science – if banned from your usual laboratory.
Callum Saunders
www.rsc.org/TheMole
The book is fun and easy to read, with a good balance of
straightforward language and scientific content to keep
readers happy without skimping on detail. There is also a
useful reference section for those wishing to dig deeper.
Although Brooks’s frequent repetition of his central tenet
that scientists are secretly anarchists can become a little
tiresome, it does serve as a reminder that the excitement
of science comes from breaking new ground. And if you’re
doing that properly you should expect a bumpy ride.
Phillip Broadwith
Try these
too
Every molecule tells a story
Simon Cotton
Paperback: £32.31
http://bit.ly/CW_BR071202
The story of over 200
molecules and how they relate
to everyday life.
L itmus: short stories from
modern science
Ra Page
Paperback: £6.99
http://bit.ly/CW_BR111103
A group of authors, in
collaboration with scientists,
tell the stories of a range of
scientific discoveries and the
people behind them.
L ab coats in Hollywood:
science, scientists and
cinema
David Kirby
Hardback: £15.56 | Kindle: £14
http://bit.ly/CW_BR091110
Find out how scientific
consultants work with
directors to add authenticity to
the science portrayed in films.
S
tudy and communication
skills for the chemical
sciences
Tina Overton, Stuart Johnson
and Jon Scott
Paperback: £18.47
http://bit.ly/CW_BR051101
How to get the most out of
lectures, tutorials and
practical work.
Book prices were taken from Amazon.co.uk
in August 2012
September 2012 | The Mole | 5