Chemistry Books

Practical book with very easy to follow and concise protocols about protein purification
If you have to purify and analyze proteins but you re not an expert this is the book for you.

This is a model for all protocol lab manuals. It is clear, precise, and well done. Incorporates the experiences of the authors, which are used to perfect the assays and protocols and minimize insufficient results and data. Troubleshooting tips are useful and original. Truly a necessary benchtop reference for the serious researcher.

If you've ever been stymied by those pesky little proteins this tome will help lift the veil. Also makes great light subway reading!

I am only writing this review out of fear that someone take up the other reviewer's advice and buy this book as "light subway reading" or that a serious protein chemist NOT buy it for the same reason. This is a truly fascinating book but you had better have your thermodynamics fresh in mind because you will need it here. The prevailing theories about protein folding are explained in great detail. This book is specialized in the best meaning of the word!

Prudent Practices has combined and updated two of the most useful and informative books on chemical safety available. This is a must for chemical technicians, researchers and hazardous waste managers! The book(s) gives concise information on general chemical lab safety, proposes procedures for monitoring experiments, controlling waste and uncovering hazardous situations.

This book is an excellent reference for laboratory safety professionals, students, and science educators.

This is easily the best reference I have found for general QA/QC practices in testing laboratories. If you have one reference in your library this should be it. I have been cracking the cover on this one since the early eighties.

This book is a valuable reference for quality managers and analysts in the laboratory. It covers many topics concerning quality assurance, and is easy to read and understand. It offers a good overview of the principals involved in a laboratory quality program.

In many courses students invest vast amounts of time and effort learning oceans of information and developing facility with a technical vocabulary. What teachers also want them to develop is the ability to reason using all this information and vocabulary. In the real world, one isn't asked questions simply to provide the correct answer. Often, there is not simple answer. This book is designed to teach such reasoning and help them develop the ability to make creative judgments using the field and language of chemistry.

And it does require that the student already have a year of chemistry and some comfort with general science under their belt. Without the knowledge of what the chemical formulae mean and how one puts various elements and compounds together, or what certain processes do to molecules, well, you won't be able to work the problems.

They are all various kinds of multiple choice or multiple task problems. The student is given some material and then asked questions and then provided a list of items to select from or a list of tasks to report on, but the purpose and method of selection differs depending on what kind of problem the student is being asked to solve. It is important to note that most of the questions do not have one and only one correct answer. When the authors provide their choices they discuss them as their preferred choices. They agree that there are other approaches. For this book, it is the process rather than the end that is usually the point.

There are five sections of questions followed by commentaries that provide the authors' answers and commentary on the problem. The sections are: 1) understanding an argument (how to critically evaluate an argument made by others), 2) constructing an argument (developing a logical sequence with appropriate linking words knowing the reasons for the sequence given), 3) critical reading (learning to evaluate the quality of the argument made - is the evidence appropriate to the conclusions and are the conclusions correct - do they make appropriate assertions or should they provide something else by way of support?), 4) making judgments (how to make choices when, as in most real world cases, there is no single "correct" answer), and 5) reference trails (this helps the student develop a feel for how to track down the important and desired information in a field with multiple oceans of information even in specialized areas).

This is a very useful book for the right audience. If you have a good basic understanding of chemistry and want to sharpen your reasoning skills using the technical information you have worked so hard to develop, this is a fine choice. Teachers can use this book to teach their students and use the questions to supplement their regular chemistry course to enrich the learning experience of their students.

As the opening paragraph of the Introduction explains: "The idea behind this book is simple. We wanted our students to learn how to think and not just what to think... to recognize that learning to be a chemist involves more than learning chemical facts..." Questions that challenge students to think critically and creatively are not easy to construct, so this collection of over 200 such questions, very few requiring advanced chemical knowledge, is a significant contribution. Commentary on about half the questions is in the concluding section, and suggestions for classroom use are in the introduction.

The book is divided into five sections. In the first, Understanding an Argument, a passage is given followed by a multiple choice question related to its conceptual base, its underlying assumptions, or some aspect other than informational content. Generally more than one of the five choices is a correct statement, but may be unrelated to or inconsistent with the passage, so a correct statement may not be a "right" answer. In the second section, Constructing an Argument, three related chemical statements are given in random order, and the task is to place them in a logical sequence. In most cases there is more than one logical sequence, so an important aspect of the answer is the justification students give, and to recognize what assumptions they might, unknowingly, be making.

Section 3, Critical Reading, presents passages from a chemistry textbook, or an article from a journal or magazine, followed by one or more questions often about assumptions (sometimes mistaken) the passage makes about the reader's knowledge. Some involve interpreting tabular or graphical data. Others involve writing, especially for non-scientists. Common to all is thinking beyond the information in the passage.

In the professional workplace, problems often lack single, unequivocal answers, and section 4, Making Judgements, reminds students of this. Some involve "back-of-the-envelope" estimations when precise data is lacking (How many molecules of Caesar's last breath were in your most recent one?). Others involve recognizing that the same word can have different meanings in different contexts, for example, "pure", "concentrated", "perfectly safe." All require thought, judgement, and justification; few have single "right" answers.

Each question in Section 5, Reference Trails, gives a specific reference from the published literature and a series of questions that can be answered either in the reference or earlier cited ones, developing valuable research skills for upper division and graduate chemistry students. Unlike earlier questions, these have single unequivocal answers somewhere in the reference trail.

Although certainly worthwhile for the questions it contains, this book's greatest value may be to emphasize the important skills these kinds of questions develop and to encourage teachers at all levels to keep this in mind in their own efforts. As a model for innovative questions, this book is a gem. "A Question of Chemistry: Creative Problems for Critical Thinkers" belongs in the library of every chemistry teacher from high school to graduate school.

Very interesting and useful book for teachers and students of this particular fields of study: Nuclear chemistry, Chemistry radiation and Radiological Protection.

This is the best, most up to date book on the subject that I know of.

Magill has done such a good job with "R cubed" as some people call it, that it is a suggested introductory text and is offered for sale in the book stores of several well respected international research organizations.

One of the biggest challenges in science is to keep up with the flood of information. Magill's book is the most current available.

McCreery covers everything Raman, including the theoretical background of Raman spectroscopy, the performance of different types of Raman spectrometers, and Raman imaging. Truly a great reference!

The author presents a very skilled look at signal to noise considerations present in dispersive spectroscopy. The author also breaks down each component pertinent to Raman spectroscopy and gives real world data from different Raman instrumentation. Finally, the author provides an informative narrative as to the changes and base phenomenon that have allowed Raman spectroscopy to break through as a viable analytical method. A must have for anyone who uses or wants to learn more about Raman spectroscopy.

If you, like me, are an undergraduate doing quite a bit of physical chemistry, this is an excellent book to have around. It treats a number of different topics in a fairly good deal of depth and quite clearly. As long as you already have a feel for basic kinetics (how to derive a rate equation, using the steady-state assumption, etc.), then you'll easily dive into this book. If you're not particularly comfortable with that kind of material, it's probably advisable to look elsewhere first (Atkins if you're feeling brave) before using this book, as it doesn't give those topics a thorough treatment but rather quickly proceeds to talking about techniques for studying fast reactions etc. This is a very good book and singularly is the reason I did well on my recent kinetics exam.

As a chemist, but not a physical chemist, I am often in need of not only a refresher in many topics within chemistry but also a more in-depth treatment of a topic. It is often difficult finding information about topics outisde of your major area of interest that are on an appropriate level to allow you to learn quickly without being overwhelmed, yet learn at a sufficient level of depth as to use your new-found knowledge effectively. I have encountered several books that I have found particularly useful in this regard. Pilling and Seakins is one of them.

The authors do a great job of mixing the theoretical treatment with actual data and data analysis (a boon to those of us who use kinetics as a tool, but do not focus on its theory in our research!). I have used this book in my own research as well as in a supplement to teaching a graduate class in Physical Organic Chemistry. The description of collision and transition state theory was particularly helpful in this latter regard. Further advantages of this book is that it is quite well written and makes use of excellent figures and diagrams.

If you own one book on chemical kinetics, this is the one for you.

In spite of the fact that new techniques to elucidate gas phase kinetics and dynamics have been developed since this book was published, the contents remain extremely relevant today. Anyone interested in generating, detecting, or quantitatively measuring gas phase flows of atoms or small molecules should first consult this text. The described methods have been successfully applied in countless studies of atmospheric chemistry, combustion, chemical lasers, and fundamental state-to-state reaction dynamics.

The list of topics and contributors includes:

1) Generation and measurement of atom and radical concentrations in flow systems (Clyne & Nip).

2) High temperature flow tubes. Generation and measurement of refractory species (Fontijn & Felder).

3) Electronically excited long-lived states of atoms and diatomic molecules in flow systems (Kolts and Setser).

4) Production and detection of reactive species with lasers in static systems (Lin & McDonald).

5) Production of small positive ions in a mass spectrometer (Bone).

6) Discharge-excited rare gas halide lasers (Djeu).

Each chapter is well written and exhaustively referenced.

In spite of the fact that new techniques to elucidate gas phase kinetics and dynamics have been developed since this book was published, the contents remain extremely relevant today. Anyone interested in generating, detecting, or quantitatively measuring gas phase flows of atoms or small molecules should first consult this text. The described methods have been successfully applied in countless studies of atmospheric chemistry, combustion, chemical lasers, and fundamental state-to-state reaction dynamics.

The list of topics and contributors includes:

1) Generation and measurement of atom and radical concentrations in flow systems (Clyne & Nip).

2) High temperature flow tubes. Generation and measurement of refractory species (Fontijn & Felder).

3) Electronically excited long-lived states of atoms and diatomic molecules in flow systems (Kolts and Setser).

4) Production and detection of reactive species with lasers in static systems (Lin & McDonald).

5) Production of small positive ions in a mass spectrometer (Bone).

6) Discharge-excited rare gas halide lasers (Djeu).

Each chapter is well written and exhaustively referenced.

The starting point to select, install, operate or control specific Machinery is to learn and understand about its principles and technology. I am an Electronics Engineer, but I have been working for the last 16 years as an Instrumentation, Automation and Process Safety and Control Engineer for the Oil and Gas Industries. As a result I have been involved with Chemical and Mechanical Engineering issues related with both Reciprocating and Centrifugal Compressors in a day to day basic. This handy reference has proven most useful and time saving when in need of information or a shortcut to solve problems.

This "quick-reference" guide offers you authoritative information on the operating characteristics, efficiencies, design features, reliability, and maintenance of Reciprocating Compressors. Absolutely a must have if you work with Reciprocating Compressors.

I am a rotating equipment specialist, and consider this a very thorough book on all aspects of reciprocating compressors, from the general design, installation, and maintenance point of view. What sets this book apart from others is that the author is a reliability specialist, and many of the hidden details that can lead to failures are pointed out. In addition, the book is extremely well illustrated with large clear pictures and drawings.