Every Molecule Matters

Every Molecule Matters is a successor to the author’s earlier Every Molecule Tells a Story and tells the story of a wide range of molecules.

These range from the familiar odours that enhance the pleasure of eating (and the spices that add piquancy) to the vitamins vital to our survival, as well as the ways in which insects and plants use chemicals to protect themselves. There’s controversy surrounding the compounds of chlorine, which encompass life-supporting anaesthetics and natural antibiotics, as well as insecticides like DDT, which saved innumerable lives but became an environmental cause célèbre. Through the addictive power of nicotine, smoking tobacco transformed from a curiosity imported from the Americas into a megapound industry that has caused significant human illness and death. And how safe is vaping? Discover the painkillers that have become drugs of abuse, and smile at the smelly sulfur compounds that serve as unpleasant human odorants (and defence molecules for skunks), control natural cycles in the environment or act as flavourings in wine. You will discover them all here.

This book showcases the structures of hundreds of compounds used by humans, animals and plants. Some are beneficial; some are not. Find out here why you should be better informed about them.

• This collection of molecules includes human issues, such as the chemistry of vaping, and drugs of abuse, including ’spice’, nitazenes and fentanyl
• ’Chemistry of Everyday’ includes vitamins and the molecules that give foods their aromas and appetizing appeal
• The chemistry of nature - how plants and insects use chemicals to defend themselves against potential predators, whether humans, birds, animals or other insects
• Organohalogen compounds, encompassing the atmosphere-damaging CFCs and their replacements, and the chlorine compounds that are important medicines (e.g. vancomycin)
• Using isotopes, from archaeologists faced by mysteries of ancient Rome and silver from Spanish conquistadors, to tracking down the origin of South American cocaine and solving the ’Scissor Sister’ murder case

Simon Cotton obtained his BSc and PhD in the Chemistry department of Imperial College London, followed by research and teaching appointments at Queen Mary College, London, and the University of East Anglia. He subsequently taught chemistry in both state and independent schools for over 30 years, then in 2011 he became an honorary senior lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Birmingham, where for five years he taught inorganic and organic chemistry. He has published research on the chemistry of iron, cobalt, scandium, yttrium and the lanthanide elements.

His ＂Soundbite Molecules＂ feature ran as a regular column in the magazine

Education in Chemistry from 1996 to 2012, reaching every secondary school in the UK. He has written over 100 ＂Molecules of the Month＂ articles, which are featured online at

http: //www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/motm.htm and recognised globally. Additionally, he has delivered over forty ＂Chemistry in Its Element＂ podcasts for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Chemistry World website at http: //www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/.

In 2005 he shared the Royal Society of Chemistry Schools Education Award and in 2014 was awarded the British Empire Medal for his work in chemistry and education.

He was editor of ＂Lanthanide and Actinide Compounds＂ for the Dictionary of

Organometallic Compounds and the Dictionary of Inorganic Compounds between 1984 and 1997. He wrote the account of lanthanide coordination chemistry for the second edition of Comprehensive Coordination Chemistry and the accounts of lanthanide inorganic and coordination chemistry for the first and second editions of the Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry.

This is his ninth book; his previous books are

D. J. Cardin, S. A. Cotton, M. Green, and J. A. Labinger, Organometallic Compounds of the Lanthanides, Actinides and Early Transition Metals, .

S. A. Cotton, Building The Late Mediaeval Suffolk Parish Church,

S. A. Cotton, Chemistry of Precious Metals, London:

S. A. Cotton, Every Molecule Tells a Story, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fl., 2012.

S. A. Cotton, Lanthanide and Actinide Chemistry,

S. A. Cotton, Lanthanides and Actinides

S. A. Cotton and F. A. Hart, The Heavy Transition Elements