What Is Chemistry (2nd Edition)

周公度Peking University Press · ChinaAug 2025

Rating 3.9
Word count
123K words
Chapters
54
ISBN
9787301305294

Tags

Popular Science Emerging IndustriesEcologyEveryday ChemistryScience EnlightenmentScientific ThinkingEnergy MaterialsDisciplinary ValueIllustrated GuidePopular NarrativeChemistry Primer

Summary

What Is Chemistry? explores the relationship between chemistry and human life and the value of chemistry as a discipline, covering the origin of the name "chemistry," what chemistry is and what it is not, chemistry as a driver of social development, a pioneer of energy, a developer of materials, a protector of the environment, a creator of a better life, and a pillar of emerging industries. Combining reasoning with facts, the author gives a scientific analysis of familiar examples from daily life from a chemical perspective, pointing out what is right and what is wrong, so that readers can both gain knowledge and apply it in practice. The writing is fluent and easy to understand.

Editor's review

This is a popular science book that answers the question "what exactly is chemistry?" The second edition continues the approach of starting from the value of the discipline rather than from formulas. The author explores chemistry's relationship with social development, energy, materials, the environment, everyday life, and emerging industries, placing familiar examples from life under a chemical lens for scientific analysis, pointing out common misunderstandings while explaining what is correct. The writing is fluent and easy to understand, combining reasoning with facts, so that readers gain knowledge while also being able to apply their judgment in practice. It is suitable as an introduction to the discipline for non-chemistry readers and also for chemistry beginners to build an overall impression that "chemistry is useful and approachable," and it is easy to read in sections during a commute or before bed.

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Reading tips

  1. Read by chapter topic, starting with the part you care about most—energy, materials, or the environment
  2. When reading life examples, first judge right or wrong yourself, then read the author's analysis and compare the differences in thinking
  3. After each chapter, summarize the core viewpoint to others in one sentence to test whether you have truly understood it

About the publisher

Peking University Press China · Founded in 1979

Peking University Press is a comprehensive university press whose publishing areas cover classical literature, popular science, social culture, world history, Western philosophy, and culture. Its catalogue contains 6,031 titles, with representative books including A Dream of Red Mansions, Relativity: The Special and General Theory (15th Edition) (with Einstein's classic papers on unified field theory and other topics), Elements, Conics, The Aristocratic Families of the Eastern Jin, The Philosophy of Mythology (Volume I), The Philosophy of Mythology (Volume II), and The Origin of Continents and Oceans. Representative authors include Cao Xueqin, Zhou Ruchang, Albert Einstein, Euclid, Apollonius, Tian Yuqing, Schelling, and Xian Gang. The press has developed distinctive strengths in classical Chinese literature and in the translation of Western philosophical classics, while also covering scientific classics and social and cultural studies. As public information is limited, this description is based only on the books in the catalogue and offers no further extrapolation.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 序
  3. 前言
  4. 总序
  5. 第1章 化学名称的由来和含义
  6. 1.1 化学名称的由来
  7. 1.2 “化学”的含义
  8. 第2章 化学是研究原子和分子的科学
  9. 2.1 化学的研究对象
  10. 2.2 原子和元素
  11. 2.3 元素周期表
  12. 2.4 分子和化合物
  13. 2.5 太阳和地球中的原子和分子
  14. 第3章 化学是社会发展的推动者
  15. 3.1 用火的化学活动产生了人
  16. 3.2 早期的化学活动和社会的发展
  17. 3.3 近代化学和社会的发展
  18. 3.4 20世纪的化学推动社会迅猛发展
  19. 第4章 什么的化学和化学的什么
  20. 4.1 什么的化学
  21. 4.2 化学的什么
  22. 第5章 化学是能源的开拓者
  23. 5.1 能源和化学
  24. 5.2 石油
  25. 5.3 煤
  26. 5.4 天然气
  27. 5.5 太阳能
  28. 5.6 氢能及其他可再生能源
  29. 5.7 核能
  30. 第6章 化学是材料的研制者
  31. 6.1 金属材料
  32. 6.2 合成高分子材料
  33. 6.3 玻璃和陶瓷
  34. 6.4 电子信息材料
  35. 6.5 碳纳米材料的化学
  36. 第7章 化学是环境的保护者
  37. 7.1 环境和化学
  38. 7.2 水的污染和治理
  39. 7.3 气候变暖和低碳化学
  40. 7.4 大气化学
  41. 第8章 化学是美好生活的创建者
  42. 8.1 化学为人类提供健康的饮食
  43. 8.2 维生素
  44. 8.3 药物化学的研究使人延年益寿
  45. 8.4 生活中的化学元素问题
  46. 第9章 化学是自然科学的探索者
  47. 9.1 开拓新创意和新思想
  48. 9.2 揭开生命的奥秘
  49. 9.3 水在大脑记忆功能中的作用
  50. 9.4 研究宇宙的演变
  51. 9.5 开拓可持续发展的研究
  52. 参考文献
  53. 第1版后记
  54. 索引

FAQ

Will a liberal arts student find this book difficult? No. This book is aimed at general readers, starting from the origin of the name "chemistry" and the relationship between chemistry and life; it does not rely on complex formulas and focuses on reasoning and facts. Liberal arts readers only need to read at their own pace and understand unfamiliar terms from context; treat it as popular science rather than a textbook.
What is the difference between the second edition and the old edition? The materials do not specify the differences between the two editions, so readers should not judge the content's newness on that basis. What can be confirmed is that the overall framework still revolves around chemistry's role in social development, energy, materials, the environment, life, and emerging industries, making it suitable as an introductory book for the discipline. If you already have the old edition, you can read it first and then decide whether to add the new edition.
Can this book be used as a chemistry textbook? It is not suitable as a systematic textbook. It does not organize knowledge points according to a teaching syllabus and lacks exercises and calculation training; it focuses on explaining the value of chemistry as a discipline and its relationship with life. A more appropriate use is as a supplementary reader outside the textbook, helping readers build interest and an overall impression before returning to the textbook to learn specific knowledge.

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About the author

周公度 Author

Public information about Zhou Gongdu is limited. Judging from the eight works held in the library, his writing spans two broad fields: professional chemistry textbooks and personal essays on culture and life. On the one hand, he compiled Structural Chemistry: Fundamentals and its exercise guide, and took part in writing and revising What Is Chemistry, materials intended for classroom study and examination preparation, placing them within science education and popular science writing. On the other hand, he produced works such as Six Records of a Floating Life (Zhou Zuoren Classics Library), the essay collection A History of Doraemon, and The Cultural Sentiments of Covered Bridges, which involve the editing of classic texts, miscellaneous essays, and cultural sketches. The coexistence of these two kinds of subject matter shows that the author can handle rigorously structured disciplinary knowledge as well as record everyday life and cultural impressions in a plain style. Overall, his works combine the transmission of knowledge with the pleasure of reading, and have left a certain influence in both popular science and essay writing.