About this item
Illustrated with remarkable new full-color images--indeed, one or more on every page--and written by one of the world's leading authorities on the subject, Reactions offers a compact, pain-free tour of the inner workings of chemistry. Reactions begins with the chemical formula almost everyone knows--the formula for water, H2O--a molecule with an "almost laughably simple chemical composition." But Atkins shows that water is also rather miraculous--it is the only substance whose solid form is less dense than its liquid (hence ice floats in water)--and incredibly central to many chemical reactions, as it is an excellent solvent, being able to dissolve gases and many solids. Moreover, Atkins tells us that water is actually chemically aggressive, and can react with and destroy the compounds dissolved in it, and he shows us what happens at the molecular level when water turns to ice--and when it melts.
About the Author
Peter Atkins is the author of the novels MORNINGSTAR, BIG THUNDER, and MOONTOWN and the screenplays HELLRAISER II, HELLRAISER III, HELLRAISER IV, and WISHMASTER. His short fiction has appeared in such anthologies as THE MUSEUM OF HORRORS, DARK DELICACIES II, HELLBOUND HEARTS, and GHOSTS, and has been selected eight times for one or more of the various "Year's Best" anthologies. His recent book, RUMOURS OF THE MARVELLOUS, a collection of his short fiction, was a finalist for the British Fantasy Award. He is the co-founder with Glen Hirshberg of The Rolling Darkness Revue, an annual folly they commit at whatever theatre will have them. He blogs at peteratkins.blogspot.com
