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Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History
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Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History Paperback - 2004

by Penny Le Couteur; Jay Burreson

With lively prose and an eye for colorful and unusual details, Le Couteur and Burreson offer a novel way to understand the shaping of civilization and the workings of our contemporary world.


Summary

Napoleon's Buttons is the fascinating account of seventeen groups of molecules that have greatly influenced the course of history. These molecules provided the impetus for early exploration, and made possible the voyages of discovery that ensued. The molecules resulted in grand feats of engineering and spurred advances in medicine and law; they determined what we now eat, drink, and wear. A change as small as the position of an atom can lead to enormous alterations in the properties of a substance-which, in turn, can result in great historical shifts.

With lively prose and an eye for colorful and unusual details, Le Couteur and Burreson offer a novel way to understand the shaping of civilization and the workings of our contemporary world.

From the publisher

Napoleon's Buttons is the fascinating account of seventeen groups of molecules that have greatly influenced the course of history. These molecules provided the impetus for early exploration, and made possible the voyages of discovery that ensued. The molecules resulted in grand feats of engineering and spurred advances in medicine and law; they determined what we now eat, drink, and wear. A change as small as the position of an atom can lead to enormous alterations in the properties of a substance-which, in turn, can result in great historical shifts. With lively prose and an eye for colorful and unusual details, Le Couteur and Burreson offer a novel way to understand the shaping of civilization and the workings of our contemporary world.

First line

CHRISTOS E. ESPICIARIAS!-for Christ and spices-was the jubilant cry from Vasco da Gama's sailors as, in May 1498, they approached India and the goal of gaining untold wealth from spices that for centuries had been the monopoly of the merchants of Venice.

Details

  • Title Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History
  • Author Penny Le Couteur; Jay Burreson
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: first
  • Pages 384
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Tarcherperigee, New York
  • Date May 24, 2004
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9781585423316 / 1585423319
  • Weight 0.85 lbs (0.39 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 in (22.61 x 14.99 x 2.54 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Reading level 1340
  • Library of Congress subjects Chemistry, Chemistry - History
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2004045987
  • Dewey Decimal Code 540

Media reviews

"Well-conceived,well-done popular science." —Booklist

Citations

  • Science, 06/05/2009, Page 1269

About the author

PENNY CAMERON LE COUTEUR, PH.D., teaches chemistry at Capilano College in British Columbia, Canada, where she has been a professor for over thirty years. Winner of a Polysar Award for Outstanding Chemistry Teaching in Canadian Colleges, she was formerly the head of Capilano's chemistry department and was chair of pure and applied sciences. She has written chemistry distance-education courses, coauthored a chemistry textbook, and served as a project adviser in chemistry for universities in eastern Indonesia. She was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and now lives in North Vancouver. JAY BURRESON, PH.D., has worked as an industrial chemist and held a National Institutes of Health special fellowship for research on chemical compounds in marine life. He is also the general manager of a high-tech company.
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