Choice Review

What do chemists do? What impact does chemistry have on our lives and our society? These are the questions Breslow addresses in this easily read book. Little emphasis is given to how chemists do their work, but this treatment allows the material to be accessible to a wider audience. The selection of topics is timely, with particular attention given to medicinal and environmental chemistry. The author makes the important point that all materials are chemical and that natural products include some of the most potent toxins known. However, the theme is sounded almost to the point of being jingoistic. Nevertheless, the many faces of chemistry are well displayed, and the excitement of "the central, useful, and creative science" is readily apparent. General readers; lower-division undergraduates. M. D. Marshall; Amherst College