• Contains the most recent interpretations by historians of chemistry
• Reveals the richness and diversity of chemistry in experimentation, theory, and analysis
• Raises philosophical issues concerning the nature of chemical change
• Explores the historical tension between physicists' and chemists' approaches to chemical transformation

  
From man's first exploration of natural materials and their transformations to today's materials science, chemistry has always been the central discipline that underpins both the physical and biological sciences, as well as technology. 

In this Very Short Introduction, William H Brock traces the unique appeal of this fundamental science throughout history. Covering alchemy, early-modern chemistry, pneumatic chemistry and Lavoisier's re-interpretation of chemical change, the rise of organic and physical chemistry, and the transforming power of synthesis, Brock explores the extraordinary and often puzzling transformations of natural and artificial materials, as well as the men and women who experimented, speculated, and explained matter and change.