Cartoon Guide to Chemistry

If you have ever suspected that "heavy water" is the title of a bootleg Pink Floyd album, believed that surface tension is an anxiety disorder, or imagined that a noble gas is the result of a heavy meal at Buckingham Palace, then you need The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry to set you on the road to chemical literacy.

You don't need to be a scientist to grasp these and many other complex ideas, because The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry explains them all: the history and basics of chemistry, atomic theory, combustion, solubility, reaction stoichiometry, the mole, entropy, and much more—all explained in simple, clear, and yes, funny illustrations. Chemistry will never be the same!

Gonick has been creating comic guides to history, science, and other subjects for over 30 years and is staff cartoonist for Muse magazine. He and Criddle (environmental engineering and science, Stanford U.) begin their cartoon guide with the history of chemistry and then present information accompanied by humorous illustrations covering subjects that students would learn in a college level chemistry class. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Larry Gonick has been creating comics that explain history, science, and other big subjects for more than thirty years. He has been a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT and is staff cartoonist for Muse magazine.