Beauty through the eyes of a chemist

Have you ever wondered where the true beauty resides in experimental chemistry? Maybe it's in the clarity of the experiment's conception?. the design of the instruments?. the nature of the knowledge gained. or of the product made?   

In his latest book, Elegant Solutions: Ten Beautiful Experiments in Chemistry, renowned science writer Philip Ball offers ten suggestions of where the true beauty may reside in experimental chemistry.    

He entices the reader by providing an insight into the way chemists think and work, and demonstrates how what they do affects the rest of science and the wider world.   

He encourages both scientists and non-scientists alike to look at how the experiments were received at the time, how they have changed the way we think, and how they have sometimes been distorted in the retelling.   

On writing this book, Philip Ball said "It was a wonderful opportunity to delve more deeply into some classic experiments that one normally reads about only in a somewhat caricaturized or sanitized version in textbook histories" adding "It was also a pleasure to find out more about some of the personalities involved."   

This new delivery from Philip Ball is on sale from September.   

Two new RSC weeklies announced

Two more of the RSC's journals are to be published weekly from January 2006, it has been announced. Dalton Transactions and Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), both leading journals in their respective fields, will be doubling in frequency to bring you the latest research faster than ever.     

Following the highly successful and welcome transition to weekly publication earlier this year of Chemical Communications and Journal of Materials Chemistry, this latest announcement reinforces the RSC's commitment to the development of its journals.     

Prompted by the continued growth of high quality submissions to these two respected journals, the move to weekly publication will be accompanied by a new format to further improve the readability and attractiveness of the content.     

These are exciting times for both journals - Dalton Transactions will lead the way by becoming the first weekly general 
inorganic chemistry journal. PCCP has recently seen its Impact Factor rise for the fourth successive year. In addition, 
the journal has the highest immediacy index of any physical chemistry journal - an indication of the urgent and topical work that it publishes.     

And finally....

Nanochemistry: A Chemical Approach to Nanomaterials, the first textbook on the subject, makes its debut this month.      

Written by Geoffrey A Ozin and André C Arsenault, the title has already created a surge of interest in the weeks approaching publication. Well illustrated and with an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach, it is bound to be a hit.