Order and Chaos in the World of Atoms

Abstract

IN a sentence, this is a sound and interesting sketch of the atomic and molecular make-up of matter, told in simple language and well illustrated with diagrams. The authors, who are attached to the University Chemical Laboratory at Cambridge, open with a brief historical allusion to the development of ideas concerning the atom; the historical note is struck lightly at intervals throughout the composition, a slight dissonance being noticeable only in a reference (p. 60) which might lead a lay reader to infer that Boyle knew of the existence of chlorine. The historical introduction leads on to an outline of the present-day picture of atomic structures and of the various forces that enable atoms to hold together. The role of the chemist as architect and manipulator of these infinitesimal entities is then depicted, a super-brobdingnagian figure a hundred thousand miles high, with enormous hands, and moon-like eyes fifteen hundred miles across, being visualized in his tinkerings with carbon atoms an inch in width.

Order and Chaos in the World of Atoms

A Survey of Modern Chemistry. By B. C. Saunders and R. E. D. Clark. Pp. x+266. (Bickley : English Universities Press, Ltd., 1942.) 8s. 6d. net.