Every Molecule Matters

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-041-11062-0
Verlag: CRC Press

Buch, Englisch, 316 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Every Molecule Matters is a successor to the author’s earlier Every Molecule Tells a Story and tells the story of a wide range of molecules.

These range from the familiar odours that enhance the pleasure of eating (and the spices that add piquancy) to the vitamins vital to our survival, as well as the ways in which insects and plants use chemicals to protect themselves. There’s controversy surrounding the compounds of chlorine, which encompass life-supporting anaesthetics and natural antibiotics, as well as insecticides like DDT, which saved innumerable lives but became an environmental cause célèbre. Through the addictive power of nicotine, smoking tobacco transformed from a curiosity imported from the Americas into a megapound industry that has caused significant human illness and death. And how safe is vaping? Discover the painkillers that have become drugs of abuse, and smile at the smelly sulfur compounds that serve as unpleasant human odorants (and defence molecules for skunks), control natural cycles in the environment or act as flavourings in wine. You will discover them all here.

This book showcases the structures of hundreds of compounds used by humans, animals and plants. Some are beneficial; some are not. Find out here why you should be better informed about them.

• This collection of molecules includes human issues, such as the chemistry of vaping, and drugs of abuse, including ‘spice’, nitazenes and fentanyl.

• ‘Chemistry of Everyday’ includes vitamins and the molecules that give foods their aromas and appetizing appeal.

• The chemistry of nature - how plants and insects use chemicals to defend themselves against potential predators, whether humans, birds, animals or other insects.

• Organohalogen compounds, encompassing the atmosphere-damaging CFCs and their replacements, and the chlorine compounds that are important medicines (e.g. vancomycin).

• Using isotopes, from archaeologists faced by mysteries of ancient Rome and silver from Spanish conquistadors, to tracking down the origin of South American cocaine and solving the ‘Scissor Sister’ murder case.

Zielgruppe

Academic, Professional Reference, Undergraduate Advanced, and Undergraduate Core

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cotton, Simon

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biochemie (nichtmedizinisch)
• Naturwissenschaften Chemie Organische Chemie
• Naturwissenschaften Chemie Anorganische Chemie
• Naturwissenschaften Chemie Chemie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

The Author

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 Food

[Abstract, Keywords]

Introduction

Carbohydrates Polysaccharides

Amino acids and Proteins Aminoacids Polypeptides and proteins

Lipids

Taste Sensations

Meat

Cheese

Blue cheeses

Lactose and Camembert

Cheddar

Bread

Baking

Potato

Raw potatoes

Boiled potatoes

Baked potatoes

Potato chips

Mushrooms

Puffball mushrooms

Onions

Fresh onions

Cooked onions

Tomatoes

Strawberries

Wild strawberries

Oranges and lemons

Orange juice and limonene isomer smells

Chapter 2 Vitamins

[Abstract, Keywords]

Introduction

Vitamin A

Vitamin B1, Thiamin

Vitamin B2, Riboflavin

Vitamin B3, Niacin

Vitamin B5, Pantothenic acid

Vitamin B6, Pyridoxine

Vitamin B7, Biotin

Vitamin B9, Folic acid

Vitamin B12, Cobalamin

Vitamin C, L-Ascorbic acid

Vitamin D, Calciferol

Vitamin E

Vitamin K

Chapter 3 Hot and Cold

[Abstract, Keywords]

Introduction

Spices and ‘hot’

Capsaicin

The TRPV1 receptor

Black pepper

Ginger

Clove

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

Szechuan peppers

Cool and menthol

How menthol works

Carvone

A new minty molecule

Mustard

Chapter 4 Abused Painkillers and Other Drugs of Abuse

[Abstract, Keywords]

Opium

Morphine

Heroin

Fentanyl

Carfentanil and other powerful fentanyls

Oxycodone and Oxycontin

Krokodil

Spice

Nitazenes

Chapter 5 Nasty Smells

[Abstract, Keywords]

Introduction

Hydrogen sulphide

Dimethylsulfide

Dimethyldisulfide and the titan arum

Thiols

Skunks

Personal hygiene – and wines

Trimethylamine

The Smell of the Living and the Dead

The scent of death

Molecules and Mosquitoes

Euglossine bees

Chapter 6 War and Peace

[Abstract, Keywords]

Introduction

Cut grass and green aroma

Plant defence

Weaponised insects

Out of detective novels

Blister beetles

Plants attracting insects

Insect repellents

Chapter 7 Organochlorine Compounds

[Abstract, Keywords]

Introduction

Organic chlorine compounds

Chloromethane

Pesticides and DDT

Dieldrin and Aldrin

Chlorinated medicines

Chlorinated phenols

Natural germ-killers from the earth

Teicoplanin

Chloramphenicol

Halogenated Compounds from Marine Fungi

Another killer

Chapter 8 Organofluorine Compounds

[Abstract, Keywords]

Introduction

CFCs, serendipity and a serious problem

Other organofluorine compounds

Other problematic organofluorine compounds

A natural problem

Fluorinated pharmaceuticals

Anaesthetics

Blood substitutes

Perfluorocubane

Chapter 9 Smoking and Vaping

[Abstract, Keywords]

Smoking

Nicotine

Health effects of smoking

Toxic chemicals in tobacco

Vaping

Metal heating elements and metal pieces

Solvents

Flavourings

Diacetyl

Benzaldehyde, cinnamaldehyde and vanillin

Vitamin E acetate

Nicotine analogues

Student vaping

Conclusions and summary

Chapter 10 Isotopes

[Abstract, Keywords]

Isotopes

What’s the difference between H2O and D2O?

Lead isotopes

Coinage and Isotopes

Uranium isotopes and their separation

Carbon isotopes

Detecting food fraud

Radiocarbon

Fraudulent white truffles

Isoscapes

Carbon in foods

Strontium isotopes

Isotopes and drugs

King Richard III

Isotopes in solving crimes The Welsh case The ‘Scissor Sisters’ case An unsolved crime. five thousand years ago.

Chapter 11 Methane

[Abstract, Keywords]

Introduction and historical background

Wood, coal and coal gas

Coal, the environment and smogs

Natural gas and methane.

Methane, a greenhouse gas

Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Simon Cotton earned his BSc and PhD in chemistry from Imperial College London, followed by research and teaching appointments at Queen Mary College, London, and the University of East Anglia. He subsequently taught chemistry in both state and independent schools for over 30 years. In 2011, he became an honorary senior lecturer in chemistry at the University of Birmingham, where he taught inorganic and organic chemistry for 5 years. He has published research on the chemistry of iron, cobalt, scandium, yttrium and the lanthanide elements.

His ‘Soundbite Molecules’ feature ran as a regular column in the magazine Education in Chemistry from 1996 to 2012, reaching every secondary school in the UK. He has written over 100 ‘Molecules of the Month’ articles, which are featured online at http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/motm.htm and recognised globally. Additionally, he has delivered over 40 ‘Chemistry in Its Element’ podcasts for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Chemistry World website at http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/.

In 2005, he shared the Royal Society of Chemistry Schools Education Award, and in 2014, he was awarded the British Empire Medal for his work in chemistry and education.

He was the editor of ‘Lanthanide and Actinide Compounds’ for the Dictionary of Organometallic Compounds and the Dictionary of Inorganic Compounds between 1984 and 1997. He wrote the section on lanthanide coordination chemistry for the second edition of Comprehensive Coordination Chemistry and the sections on lanthanide inorganic and coordination chemistry for the first and second editions of the Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry.

This is his ninth book. His previous books are given as follows:

D. J. Cardin, S. A. Cotton, M. Green, and J. A. Labinger, Organometallic Compounds of the Lanthanides, Actinides and Early Transition Metals, Chapman and Hall, 1985

S. A. Cotton, Building the Late Mediaeval Suffolk Parish Church, SIAH, 2019

S. A. Cotton, Chemistry of Precious Metals, London, Blackie, 1997

S. A. Cotton, Every Molecule Tells a Story, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2012

S. A. Cotton, Lanthanide and Actinide Chemistry, John Wiley, 2006

S. A. Cotton, Lanthanides and Actinides, Macmillan, 1991

S. A. Cotton and F. A. Hart, The Heavy Transition Elements, Macmillan, 1975

P. May and S. A. Cotton, Molecules That Amaze Us, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2015