The Second Edition of Giant Molecules presents an introductory textbook on large molecules that exhibit specific physical and biological properties related to their size, orientation, and environment, making this subject accessible to students from high school to universities. Written by Charles Carraher, author of more than forty books on the subject, this up-to-date guide presents material in an integrated fashion, marrying fundamentals with illustrative applications. The text assumes no previous formal scientific training, and includes new and updated questions and answers, a glossary of relevant terms, bibliographies, visual aids, and related Web links in every chapter. Giant Molecules, Second Edition will appeal to individuals who have a personal or professional interest in polymers, as well as to college chemistry and materials science students who study polymers.

?? Giant molecules are important in our everyday life. But, as pointed out by the authors, they are also associated with a culture. What Bach did with the harpsichord, Kuhn and Flory did with polymers. We owe a lot of thanks to those who now make this music accessible ??Pierre-Gilles de GennesNobel Prize laureate in Physics(Foreword for the 1st Edition, March 1996)This book describes the basic facts, concepts and ideas of polymer physics in simple, yet scientifically accurate, terms. In both scientific and historic contexts, the book shows how the subject of polymers is fascinating, as it is behind most of the wonders of living cell machinery as well as most of the newly developed materials. No mathematics is used in the book beyond modest high school algebra and a bit of freshman calculus, yet very sophisticated concepts are introduced and explained, ranging from scaling and reptations to protein folding and evolution. The new edition includes an extended section on polymer preparation methods, discusses knots formed by molecular filaments, and presents new and updated materials on such contemporary topics as single molecule experiments with DNA or polymer properties of proteins and their roles in biological evolution.

Our lives are dominated by giant molecules, which have remarkable properties, some of which are only just being discovered and exploited by science, though many have long been exploited far more effectively by Nature. Giant molecules dominate our lives - from the proteins and DNA within us to the man-made fibres of our clothes and the many plastics that we use every day. And they are set to have an enormous impact on the future, as scientists and engineers learn from nature (biomimetics), and utilize the full potential of tiny carbon nanotubes. The possibilities may seem like science fiction - a space station tethered to Earth by cables of giant molecules, tiny molecular vehicles carrying and dispensing drugs in our bodies, smart materials that adjust automatically to optimize our comfort, minute computers utilizing the information storage capacity of DNA - but they are the subjects of cutting edge research. Walter Gratzer gives a fascinating account of the discovery and variety of giant molecules, how they come to have their remarkable properties, and how these are used by Nature and increasingly by us, pausing now and again to tell of some of the remarkable characters involved in their discovery and development.

Traditionally, when one deals with crystals, the first property to be presented is the periodicity of the lattice, and all methods of study are based on this characteristic, which is considered essential. In fact, crystals differ from the molecules of finite size that are studied in chemistry, only in their extremely large number of particles. Furthermore, the existence of faces, which limit the spread of crystals in space, necessarily breaks the periodicity of the system. For these reasons it is natural to apply to crystals the concepts and methods that have been widely tested in the study of molecules. Pauling first emphasized this point 1 and used it to explain the electronic structure of crystals, thought to be infinite and perfect. The aim of this work is to show, with the help of a few examples, the possibilities offered by quantum chemistry for tackling the problems of crystal electronic structure, of crystallographic arrangements as well as their macroscopic shape, and of distortion effects caused by the presence of faces. The area related to the existence of energy bands (allowed or forbidden), gap, electric, magnetic or optical properties will not be touched upon.

Giant Molecular Clouds in the Galaxy: Third Gregynog Astrophysics Workshop covers the proceedings of the 1977 Third Gregynog Astrophysics Workshop on Giant Molecular Clouds (GMC), held at the University of Wales. This book is organized into 11 parts encompassing 33 chapters. After a brief introduction to the significant features of GMC, this book goes on examining radio, millimeter, and galactic center observations of GMC, along with their infrared properties and kinematics. Other parts deal with the water sources in GMC; time variation in interstellar water masers; and the relation of HII regions to molecular clouds. The remaining parts discuss the evolution of interstellar molecular clouds and the role of magnetic fields in the collapse of protostellar gas clouds. These parts also cover the chemistry of interstellar molecules containing nitrogen and the search for other planetary systems. This book will prove useful to cloud scientists, physicists, astronomers, and researchers.

The French chemist Marcelin Berthelot put forward a classical and by now an often cited sentence revealing the quintessence of the chemical science: "La Chimie cree son objet". This is certainly true because the largest number of molecular compounds were and are continuously synthesized by chemists themselves. However, modern computational quantum chemistry has reached a state of maturity that one can safely say: "La Chimie Theorique cree son objet" as well. Indeed, modern theoretical chemistry is able today to provide reliable results on elusive systems such as short living species, reactive intermediates and molecules which will perhaps never be synthesized because of one or another type of instability. It is capable of yielding precious information on the nature of the transition states, reaction paths etc. Additionally, computational chemistry gives some details of the electronic and geometric structure of molecules which remain hidden in experimental examinations. Hence, it follows that powerful numerical techniques have substantially enlarged the domain of classical chemistry. On the other hand, interpretive quantum chemistry has provided a conceptual framework which enabled rationalization and understanding of the precise data offered either by experiment or theory. It is modelling which gives a penetrating insight into the chemical phenomena and provides order in raw experimental results which would otherwise represent just a large catalogue of unrelated facts.

Discusses polymers and other synthetic molecules and how they are used in todays technology.

Giant Molecules: Essential Materials for Everyday Living and Problem Solving includes fascinating historical information on the development of polymer science, supported by a glossary and review questions with answers.

Traces the history of polymers in modern chemistry and the processes by which these giant molecules are synthesized, including discussion of polymer sources, additives, industrial applications, isomers and related topics.