American Scientist

MOLECULES: The Elements and Architecture of Everything. Theodore Gray, with photographs by Nick Mann. 240 pp. Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, 2014. $29.95. E-book app for iPhone and iPad, Touch Press, 2014. $13.99.

In his book The Elements, Theodore Gray, a chemist and cofounder of Wolfram Research, depicted the most basic of building blocks in gorgeous detail. Cast from the same aesthetic mold, his follow-up work, Molecules, reveals the next level of complexity with similarly breathtaking results. Gray provides a primer on atoms, the forces that hold them together into compounds, and the basics of chemical diagrams. Some typical ball-and-stick depictions of molecules are included to ground the reader in the composition of various substances (these diagrams are much more lively in the iPad version), but the focus of the book is to paint a picture of what molecules really look like on a macro scale. The result is both beautiful and informative.

Gray spends some time visually unpacking how naming conventions for compounds arose historically. He discusses the difference between organic and inorganic compounds. From there, he delves into some specific substances, such as soaps, ores, painkillers, sugars, and polymers, and then opens up the debate about the merits of natural versus artificial compounds. He goes on to detail what gives molecules certain properties, such as scent or color.

A separately available interactive iPad version of the book allows a more personalized connection to the material. It features video clips and click-to-rotate functionality, but the star of the show is the molecule gallery. Readers can spin molecules and may bend them if the substance’s molecular structure is “floppy” enough. The molecules vibrate too, their tempo set by a slider that indicates temperature.

Gray gives fair treatment to the full range of substances, safe and dangerous, beloved and despised. As he notes, “Just as every living creature has a place and a role (even mosquitoes), so too every compound wants to be known and appreciated for what it contributes to the richness of the natural world.”