Summary
Modern life is made up of a mind-boggling array of materials. A simple drinking cup, for example, might be made of Styrofoam, paper, or glass, depending on the drinker’s needs at the moment. Home storage cabinets can be made of metal, wood, or plastic. Space shuttles are assembled from silicon, steel, and hundreds of other materials. All of these items owe their properties to the chemical bonds between the atoms that make up the substance. Chemical Bonds examines the nature of the chemical bonds, answering fundamental questions about how they form, how they are broken, and how they help define life as we know it.
Specifications
Full-color photographs and illustrations. 2-page, full-color periodic table. Sidebars. Glossary. References. Further reading. Web sites. Index.
About the Author(s)
Phillip Manning is the author of four other books and about 150 magazine and newspaper articles. His most recent book, Islands of Hope, won the 1999 National Outdoor Book Award for nature and the environment. Manning has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.