Chemistry in Everyday Life

西尔瓦诺·富索 / 胡燕Zhejiang Science and Technology Publishing House · ChinaMay 2022

Rating 3.7
Word count
133K words
Chapters
24
ISBN
9787534189258

Tags

Popular Science 24-Hour PlanEveryday ChemistryPhysiological MysteryScience FunDispel PrejudiceEveryday Science

Summary

How many chemical reactions do you encounter in a day?

From waking to falling asleep, chemistry is with us at every moment. From physiological functions to the highest thoughts, all are related to chemistry. Although chemistry also occasionally causes public suspicion and anxiety, it is indispensable, so we must face it squarely in order to eliminate prejudice and understand its importance.

In this book, Italian chemist and science writer Silvano Fuso uses an ordinary person's 24 hours as a thread, revealing how chemistry builds our lives:

The Maillard reaction gives roast meat an enticing bright red color;

Quaternary ammonium salts make shirts soft and smooth, free from static electricity;

A tiny glucose molecule is right now powering tens of trillions of cells in your body...

From home cooking to industrial papermaking, from film to digital devices, and to the interior of the human body, our lives are perfected and continuously extended forward in the development of chemistry.

The life you love is all a miracle created by chemistry!

Editor's review

The cleverness of this book's approach lies in pulling chemistry out of the laboratory and placing it into the daily trajectory of a person from opening their eyes to falling asleep. The author does not aim for a systematic textbook-style explanation, but instead uses a timeline to string together knowledge points such as the Maillard reaction, surfactants, and glucose metabolism, attaching abstract concepts to perceptible experiences like roast meat, shirts, and breathing. For non-specialist readers, this order of "life scenario first, chemical explanation second" lowers the entry threshold and also responds to the public's complex mentality of both relying on and doubting chemistry. The book's direct response to chemophobia is commendable: it does not avoid industrial and health issues, but explains mechanisms and clarifies misunderstandings. The writing is brisk and the chapters are short, suitable for fragmented reading and also as extracurricular reading for middle school students to build interest in the subject. It should be noted that the book is primarily popular science and does not provide systematic training, so its depth is limited.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read in the order of the book's timeline, comparing each scene with your own day to deepen impressions.
  2. When encountering a chemical reaction of interest, first close the book and retell it in your own words, then look back to see whether the explanation is accurate.
  3. Use the cases in the book as prompts for family or classroom discussion, such as the color change of roast meat or the principle of fabric softeners.
  4. There is no need to memorize terms by rote; focus on understanding "why it is like this," and looking back at the terms after finishing will bring new gains.

About the publisher

Zhejiang Science and Technology Publishing House China · Founded in 1980

Zhejiang Science and Technology Publishing House is a comprehensive science and technology publisher known for academic monographs, applied technology titles and popular science books, with a focus on three areas: scholarship, popular science and science education. Judging from the books in the catalog, its publishing covers popular science, medicine, management, social psychology, Eastern philosophy and personal finance. It publishes works by overseas authors such as Douglas Hofstadter, Atul Gawande and Carlota Perez alongside Chinese writers including Liu Jian, Hu Hai, Wang Yifang and Peng Xiaohua. Representative titles include Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking, Being Mortal, Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, A Short History of the Human Body (full-color illustrated edition), and Gawande's Better and Complications, spanning cognitive science, medical humanities and the social dimensions of technology. Its distinctive approach is to connect scholarship and the general reader through popular science, valuing both ideas and readability. As public information is limited, this profile is drawn only from the books in the catalog.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 推荐序
  3. 前言 现实与传说：崇高的自然科学如何被妖魔化
  4. 第一章 早晨
  5. 1.1 起床
  6. 1.2 洗漱
  7. 1.3 早餐
  8. 1.4 上班
  9. 1.5 办公室
  10. 第二章 午餐
  11. 2.1 饭馆
  12. 2.2 胃口大开
  13. 第三章 下午
  14. 3.1 回到办公室
  15. 3.2 下班后的放松
  16. 第四章 傍晚
  17. 4.1 晚餐
  18. 4.2 饭后
  19. 第五章 晚上
  20. 5.1 甜蜜的梦
  21. 5.2 分子与大脑
  22. 结尾
  23. 参考文献
  24. 词汇表

FAQ

With no chemistry background at all, can I understand this book? Yes. The whole book starts from life scenarios, and terms are mostly accompanied by explanations when they appear, so readers are not required to have formula-derivation ability. Even if middle school chemistry knowledge is rusty, you can follow the narrative to grasp the general idea. If you get stuck on a particular concept, skipping it and continuing will not affect the overall reading; you can look it up later.
What is the difference between this book and a textbook? Textbooks pursue systematicness and completeness of knowledge, while this book organizes content by the timeline of a day, focusing on showing the connection between chemistry and everyday experience. It is more suitable for cultivating interest and building intuition and cannot replace textbooks for exam preparation or systematic study; the two have different purposes.
Is the book's discussion of chemical risks objective? The author, as a chemist, directly responds to public concerns, explaining relevant mechanisms rather than simply denying risks, and also acknowledges the problems brought by the chemical industry. The overall stance is to "face and understand" rather than to defend unconditionally. Readers can read with a critical eye and make their own judgments in light of other materials.
What age of readers is it suitable for? Junior and senior high school students with basic scientific common sense can read it; the cases in the book are close to life and easy to arouse interest. Adult readers are equally suitable as general reading. Younger children, if accompanied by parents who explain, can also understand some chapters.

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About the author

西尔瓦诺·富索 Author

Silvano Fusso is an author about whom limited public information is available, and what can be confirmed centers mainly on a single work. In the Chinese book database, only one title by him is included, namely Chemistry in Everyday Life. Judging from the title and its common classification, the book is a popular science work that tends to present chemical knowledge through scenes of daily life, enabling readers to understand chemical principles by starting from the things around them. This approach usually emphasizes readability and relevance to everyday experience rather than abstruse academic reasoning, and is suited to general readers with an interest in science. Since no reliable information is available about the author's nationality, dates of birth and death, educational background, or professional career, no speculation is offered here. On the basis of the existing clues, Fusso's profile as a writer still revolves around this popular science work, whose value lies in connecting chemistry with daily life from a plain perspective and helping readers develop a basic sense of closeness to science.

胡燕 Author

Hu Yan is an author whose works range across a remarkably wide variety of subjects. Publicly available information about her is limited, and details of her life have not been recorded. Judging from the five works held in the collection, her writing interests span several fields: there are textbook-style works grounded in specialized theory, such as Biomaterials Science, and practical readers for accounting teaching, such as Intermediate Financial Accounting. Chemistry in Everyday Life brings chemical knowledge into everyday contexts and belongs to science popularization for general readers. In the medical field, she contributed to the series on clinical diagnosis and treatment in traditional Chinese medicine, specifically the volume on common rheumatic diseases in children, showing attention to specialized clinical topics. AI E-commerce Wealth Code: A Practical Handbook for Intelligent Operations turns to the combination of artificial intelligence and e-commerce operations, reflecting a sensitivity to new technology. Overall, Hu Yan's writing combines textbook compilation with popularization, covering science, medicine, artificial intelligence and finance, with a style oriented toward organizing knowledge and practical application.