"Non-Toxic gives insightful, even-handed, evidence-based discussion about the environment in which we now find ourselves living, the environmental hazards and ways in which we may better protect ourselves and our families from increased risk of illness and disease due to harmful chemical and radiation exposure. Espousing the principles developed by famed physician and author, Dr. Andrew Weil, and making them accessible for the general reader, the book takes account of the whole person, including all aspects of lifestyle, in offering guidance to living healthy in a chemical world"--

An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, from concrete and steel to denim and chocolate, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science.

From the distinguished neurologist who is also one of the most remarkable storytellers of our time—a riveting memoir of his youth and his love affair with science, as unexpected and fascinating as his celebrated case histories. “A rare gem…. Fresh, joyous, wistful, generous, and tough-minded.” —The New York Times Book Review Long before Oliver Sacks became the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals—also by chemical reactions (the louder and smellier the better), photography, squids and cuttlefish, H.G. Wells, and the periodic table. In this endlessly charming and eloquent memoir, Sacks chronicles his love affair with science and the magnificently odd and sometimes harrowing childhood in which that love affair unfolded. In Uncle Tungsten we meet Sacks’ extraordinary family, from his surgeon mother (who introduces the fourteen-year-old Oliver to the art of human dissection) and his father, a family doctor who imbues in his son an early enthusiasm for housecalls, to his “Uncle Tungsten,” whose factory produces tungsten-filament lightbulbs. We follow the young Oliver as he is exiled at the age of six to a grim, sadistic boarding school to escape the London Blitz, and later watch as he sets about passionately reliving the exploits of his chemical heroes—in his own home laboratory. Uncle Tungsten is a crystalline view of a brilliant young mind springing to life, a story of growing up which is by turns elegiac, comic, and wistful, full of the electrifying joy of discovery.

After modern science turns every human into a genetic time bomb with men dying at age twenty-five and women dying at age twenty, girls are kidnapped and married off in order to repopulate the world.

In 1996, an unprecedented decade-long courtroom battle was waged in Florida to help bring justice and hope to the family of a young boy born with no eyes after his mother was doused outside of a local u-pick farm by a chemical fungicide believed to have caused his birth defect and the birth defects of many other children. It was a battle that nearly everyone but attorney Jim Ferraro deemed unwinnable. After all, it involved one of the world’s most powerful industrial giants. In the process, it was a fight that changed the landscape of tort law forever. Before it was over Castillo-vs-DuPont would go down in history as the first and one of the most important cases of its kind, setting precedent and also sparking a crucial debate over the questionable use of what is known as the “junk-science defense.” Blindsided is a blow-by-blow account of how a lone attorney challenged a dangerous threat to public health....and how the defenders never saw defeat coming. It’s a real life David and Goliath story―a true courtroom drama for the ages.

Popular associations with chemistry range from poisons, hazards, chemical warfare and environmental pollution to alchemical pseudoscience, sorcery and mad scientists, which gravely affect the public image of science in general. While chemists have merely complained about their public image, social and cultural studies of science have largely avoided anything related to chemistry.This book provides, for the first time, an in-depth understanding of the cultural and historical contexts in which the public image of chemistry has emerged. It argues that this image has been shaped through recurring and unlucky interactions between chemists in popularizing their discipline and nonchemists in expressing their expectations and fears of science. Written by leading scholars from the humanities, social sciences and chemistry in North America, Europe and Australia, this volume explores a blind spot in the science-society relationship and calls for a constructive dialog between scientists and their public.

Despite people using both natural and synthetic chemicals with (mainly) good intentions, some chemicals have had unintended negative consequences. Chemical residues have contaminated ecosystems the world over and are compromising the health of many ecosystems, animals and humans. The goal of Chemical World: Science in our Daily Lives is to introduce readers to basic chemistry and chemical history, and to show how chemicals are used for particular reasons but sometimes turn out to be harmful to environmental and human health. It invites readers to take a look at the world around them and ask questions about what’s in their environment and how the things they use and eat every day can affect their own health and the planet’s health. Chemical World: Science in Our Daily Lives explores some of the materials—all of which are made of basic chemical elements—that humans use or come into contact with in their day-to-day lives. Some of these chemicals are naturally occurring—clay, mercury, lead. Others have been synthesized by chemists during the past 150 years and used in a bewildering array of products ranging from roof shingles to toothpaste. Many chemical inventions, as well as naturally produced chemicals, have had profound effects on food supply, developing medicines and creating hosts of useful items for modern life.