Customer Reviews

Stories of the Invisible: A Guided Tour of Molecules

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Almost all of this is about biochemistry where the molecules are large, complex and of overriding importance and interest to human beings. In particular Philip Ball, who is a science journalist and formerly an editor of Nature, one of the most prestigious science journals in the world, wants to show "the molecular processes that govern our own bodies are not so different from those that chemists--I would prefer to say molecular scientists--are seeking to create." His further intent in this modest little book is to counter the "negative connotations of <chemical> and <synthetic>" in the public mind and to help us "appreciate what chemistry has to offer." Ball observes that "molecules" do not yet have negative connotations, and he wants to keep it that way. (pp. vi-vii)

Ball demonstrates just how really complex the molecular world is, and how the technology is becoming further removed from our everyday world, while the effect on our world grows enormously. The text does not consist of "stories" as such, but rather a broad survey of molecular science, including what's happening in exciting new fields such as molecular electronics, and how new uses for molecular knowledge is transforming older fields such as paleontology, computer science, information theory, forensics, etc. Ball provides some material on cellular construction and metabolism, augmented with drawings from his own hand. He gives us a feel for the invisible, tactile reality of molecular interactions, in which surface structure is paramount. He ends the book with a brief look at the prospects for molecular and DNA computers.

There is unfortunately a kind of veil-like quality thrown between the molecular world and the reader's perception of that world by the very fact of its invisibility that I don't think Ball's text overcomes. It is curious, but it is not a question of readability so much as a question of how to present these very complex structures and ideas in a way that the reader can absorb in some concrete fashion. Ball begins with some dialogue from a fiction set in a Dublin pub about "mollycules"; however this does not help. Indeed I could not see the point of the exchange. At any rate Ball abandons it after the first few pages.

The exposition following that, about what molecules are and how they differ technically from atoms, was one of the strengths of the book. However much of the rest of the book is like a first year survey course of various topics in molecular science, a very diverse subject, but without any insistence on the mastery of fundamentals. This is good, I suppose, and Ball's intent, but since I know little about chemistry, I was left not really appreciating a lot of the text. I express this as more a failing on my part than a criticism of Ball's efforts, and to warn the reader that some serious interactive and imaginative work will be required! Ball does indeed go to great lengths to make the visible real, not only with his drawings, but with "photos" from the "scanning tunnelling microscope" while using other "representations" to make the technically invisible, "visible."

One thing that I felt very strongly in reading this book was the sense of frustration that molecular engineers and others in the world of nano technology must feel when dealing with objects so very, very small. I had the sense that somebody was crying out, "My world for a pair of molecular tweezers!" I suspect when they get those tweezers, our world is going to change enormously.

Stories of the Invisible: A Guided Tour of Molecules written by Philip Ball is about chemistry, but to be more specific, a blend of biochemistry, bioelectricity, molecular biology, molecular chemistry.

This book trys, as the author stated, to give chemistry a better overall picture, but the boundries are becouming blurred, even more so when you explain molecular organic chemistry. Now, reading this book, doesn't require a degree in any of these disciplines, but a good grasp of scientific principles helps.

The narrative is easily read and is not difficult to read as the author relates to the reader what is happening in industry today. As more and more of the interworkings are understood in molecular chemistry, mankind should be reaping the benefits, making our lives easiler, and making better products. What I fould to be the most intriguing is a molecular chemical computer more on the order of the human brain.

Life in the next one hundred years will be very different than life was in the last one hundred years and mankind harnessing the molecules of life will be on the forefront. Nanothechnology is another field addressed in the book. As the author makes a good point, if we can find the tools to manipulate this technology, we pretty much can control everything.

All of the subjects within this book are invisible, but with tunneling microscopy, electron microscope, and other tool of the trade, making what was once unseen, now visible. Along with the authors hand drawn art illustrates the point quite well at times. I found the book readable with the caveat... you must have some science orientation.

Phillip Ball writes well, capably cuts through the complex stuff to get to the heart of the matter, and tells good stories. If you read one science book a year, or you want to give a gift to your Aunt Minnie who always wanted to find out why chemicals aren't all bad, this is the book for you.

I downrated this book because it doesn't really do what it says it is going to do. It purports to be about chemistry, and it has blurbs written by four Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry. The book claims it wants to restore chemistry to its rightful position among the natural sciences, having been relegated to a lowly position by New Age environmentalist non-think. However, the book spends most of its time on biochemistry, cell biology, and other biological topics! Phillip Ball does not really address his challenge, because so little of the book is about the chemistry of chemists (molecular engineers?) as opposed to biologists.

I wish Ball would write another book--this one really about chemistry. There's a great story to tell.

I had a hard time keeping the book down till I finished it.
It is written on the same lines as Scientific American,
New Scientist, and Nature (from which it draws heavily).

Recommended for anyone who wants to find out what protien
folding/nano tech, is all about. The next book to folow up
would be Nature's Robots.

- Mosh http://www.cs.albany.edu/~mosh

I read the 2002 paperback of the 2001 book. It contains just 185 regular text pages, including 40 illustrations. It touches upon subjects such as biosynergetic engineering, supramolecular chemistry, molecular computing or, more down to earth, such topics as the workings of hormones, drugs and painkillers. In other words it's more about biochemistry than anything else. It may function as a conspectus of the subject of molecules. Yet, I find the concept or message of the book difficult to detect. At times, the choice of topics seemed logical, at other times the entire book felt arbitrary. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret having read the book. However, it gave me little more than an idea of topics I may want to read about elsewhere in-depth.

Ball does a great job of leading the reader from a non science background into the scientific with easy use of lyric and literature. The illustrations help to make the biochemistry vivid, and easy to understand. Ball's prose is clear and informative, while avoiding the dry lecturing tone of many text books. Toss the text and read this.

Most readers with an interest in
science will be familiar with the
ground covered here. Unfortunately
the style tends to be too often dry
and flat - almost like a textbook.

Most readers with an interest in
science will be familiar with the
ground covered here. Unfortunately
the style tends to be too often dry
and flat - almost like a textbook.