Strange Chemistry: The Stories Your Chemistry Teacher Wouldn?t Tell You

This book opens the audience s eyes to the extraordinary scientific secrets hiding in everyday objects.  Helping readers increase chemistry knowledge in a fun and entertaining way, the book is perfect as a supplementary textbook or gift to curious professionals and novices.     Appeals to a modern audience of science lovers by discussing multiple examples of chemistry in everyday life     Addresses compounds that affect everyone in one way or another: poisons, pharmaceuticals, foods, and illicit drugs; thereby evoking a powerful emotional response which increases interest in the topic at hand     Focuses on edgy types of stories that chemists generally tend to avoid so as not to paint chemistry in a bad light; however, these are the stories that people find interesting     Provides detailed and sophisticated stories that increase the reader s fundamental scientific knowledge     Discusses complex topics in an engaging and accessible manner, providing the how and why that takes readers deeper into the stories INDICE: Preface xiii .Acknowledgments xvii .1 If You Do Not Know Any Chemistry, This Chapter Is For You 1 .Representing Atoms and Molecules in Chemistry 1 .Neurotransmitters 7 .Intermolecular Forces 11 .2 The Only True Aphrodisiac and Other Chemical Extremes 15 .Death Is ItsWithdrawal Symptom! 15 .What Is the Number One Cause of Liver Failure in the United States? 18 .The Most Addictive Substance Known 21 .40 Million Times DeadlierThan Cyanide 24 .The Most Abused Drug in the United States 27 .What Is the Only Known Aphrodisiac? 28 .The Most Consumed Psychoactive Substance 30 .40,000 Tons of Aspirin 33 .How Bitter Is the Bitterest? 34 .$62.5 Trillion per Gram 36 .What Is the Most Abundant Source of Air Pollution? 39 .Where DidThat Rash Come From? 41 .ItWould Take an Elephant on a Pencil 43 .The Largest Industrial Accident inWorld History 46 .What Is the Most Important Chemical Reaction? 49 .Further Reading 53 .3 The Poisons in Everyday Things 63 .Why Is Antifreeze Lethal? 63 .Aqua Dots:What a Difference a Carbon Makes! 66 .How Can Visine Kill You? 68 .Death by BENGAY  70 .It Is in 93% of People in the United States 72 .The Dreaded Apricot Pits? 75 .Honey Intoxication 79 .The DMSO Patient 81 .Deadly Helium Balloons 82 .The 2007 Pet Food Recall 83 .Mercury in Vaccines and Eye Drops? 87 .TheWorld s Deadliest Frog 88 .Leaded Candy 89 .Why not Drink Real Root Beer? 90 .The Killer Fog 92 .Nail Polish or Nail Poison? 93 .Game Board Danger 94 .What Molecule Killed Weird Al Yankovic s Parents? 96 .Deadly Popcorn 98 .EvenWater Can Be Poisonous 99 .Further Reading 101 .4 Why Old Books Smell Good and Other Mysteries of Everyday Objects 113 .The Smell of Old Books and the Hidden Vanilla Extract Underworld 113 .That Smell Is You! 117 .Electric Blue 118 .TheWorld s Most Abundant Organic Compound 120 .Chalk Used to Be Alive 122 .Decaffeinated? Try Deflavored! 123 .Bad Blood 125 .The Problem with Dry Cleaning 128 .The Smell of Dead Fish 131 .How to Make a Spark 133 .The New Car Smell 133 .A Gecko Cannot Stick to It! 135 .Why Are Day Glow Colors and Highlighter Pens So Bright? 137 .Why Your White Clothes Are not Really White? 139 .How Can a Spray–on Sunscreen Be Dangerous? 141 .There Is Ink inThat Paper 141 .Vomit and Sunless Tanners 143 .Formaldehyde: Funerals, Flooring, and Outer Space 144 .Further Reading 148 .5 Bath Salts and Other Drugs of Abuse 157 .What Are the Dangers of Bath Salts? 157 .What to Do If YouWant Your Skin to Turn Blue 163 .The Flesh–Rotting Street Drug 165 .How Does a Breathalyzer Detect a Blood Alcohol Level? 167 .How to Become a Brewery 168 .HowWas a Painkiller Used to Free Hostages? 171 .The Secret Ingredient in Coca–Cola  173 .Why Is Crack Cocaine So Addicting? 174 .Cocaine Smuggling versus MethamphetamineManufacture 177 .What Basic Common Ingredient Is Needed toMake the Drugs Vicodin , Percocet , Oxycontin , and Percodan ? 177 .Drug Money Is Right 181 .What Percentage of Americans Use Prescription Drugs? 182 .Are You Ready for Powdered Alcohol? 183 .Ecstasy Is Ruining the Rain Forests 185 .How Are Moldy Bread, Migraine Headaches, LSD, and the Salem Witch Trials All Related? 187 .Further Reading 193 .6 Why Oil Is Such a Big Part of Our Lives 201 .What Substance Is Used to Make 80% of All Pharmaceuticals? 201 .Why Do ScientistsThink Oil Comes From Fossilized Plants and Animals? 205 .How Is Oil Made? 207 .Where Is Most of the Carbon in theWorld? 209 .The MostWidely Recycled Material in the United States 209 .What Material Is Used to Make Asphalt? 210 .How Oil Helped to Save theWhales 211 .Further Reading 213 .7 WhyJuniorMints Are Shiny and Other Weird Facts about Your Food 217 .Why Is Gum Chewy? 217 .The Problem with Gummi Bears 220 .What Is the EasiestWay to Peel a Tomato? 223 .AnotherWay to Eat Insect Parts! 224 .Why Is High Fructose Corn Syrup More Consumed than .Sugar? 226 .What Causes Rancid Butter to Stink? 229 .Why Does Mint Make Your Mouth Feel Cold? 232 .It Is Probably Not Really Fresh Squeezed 234 .Why Are Viruses Added to Some Sandwich Meat? 236 .What Is Margarine Made From? 239 .Why Are Junior Mints Shiny? 241 .Further Reading 244 .8 The Radioactive Banana and Other Examples of Natural Radioactivity 251 .Where Does the Helium We Use in Balloons Come From? 253 .Who Was the First Person to Win Two Nobel Prizes? 255 .Where Is the Radioactive Material in YOUR House? 257 .Which Elements Were First Detected in Radioactive Fallout from a Nuclear Bomb? 258 .Radioactivity in Wrist watches, Exit Signs, and H–Bombs 260 .The Earth Is One Giant Nuclear Reactor 262 .Are Nuclear Reactors Natural ? 263 .Are Your Gemstones Radioactive? 265 .Radon: The Radioactive Gas in Your Home 267 .The Radioactive Banana 269 .Further Reading 271 .9 Chemistry Is Explosive! 277 .How Do BulletsWork? 277 .What Is the Most Commonly Used Explosive in North .America? 280 .What Non–nuclear Substance Is the Most Explosive? 282 .What Poison Is Used as an Explosive in Airbags? 283 .Explosive Heart Medicine 285 .Further Reading 287 .10 The Chemistry in Breaking Bad and Other Popular Culture 291 .How Does Methamphetamine Act as a Stimulant? 291 .What Is Pseudo, and How Is It Related toMethamphetamine? 294 .What Is Ricin? 297 .The Thalidomide Disaster 298 .What Is Phosphine Gas, and Why Is It a PotentialMurder Weapon? 300 .Acetylcholine, Pesticides, and Nerve Gas 301 .Further Reading 310 .11 Why You Should Not Use Illegally Made Drugs: The Organic Chemistry Reason 315 .Why You Shouldn t Use Illegally Made Drugs 315 .The Tragic Case of the Frozen Addicts 320 .Further Reading 326 Index 327

• ISBN: 978-1-119-26526-9
• Editorial: Wiley–Blackwell
• Encuadernacion: Rústica
• Páginas: 364
• Fecha Publicación: 11/08/2017
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés