Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline
Chapter 2 A-234 and the Novichok agents
Chapter 3 Allyl isothiocyanate
Chapter 4 Artemisinin
Chapter 5 Aspirin
Chapter 6 Atropine
Chapter 7 Capsaicin
Chapter 8 Cathinones + Khat
Chapter 9 CF2Cl2 and chlorofluorocarbons
Chapter 10 Chanel no 5 and 2-methylundecanal
Chapter 11 Chloromethane
Chapter 12 Cinnamaldehyde
Chapter 13 Cisplatin and other platinum anticancer drugs
Chapter 14 Cocaine
Chapter 15 Codeine, oxycodone and desomorphine
Chapter 16 Dimethylmercury
Chapter 17 Dimethylsulfide
Chapter 18 Fentanyl and its homologues
Chapter 19 Hexenal and green grass
Chapter 20 Ivermectin
Chapter 21 Limonene
Chapter 22 LSD
Chapter 23 Mefloquine and some other synthetic antimalarial drugs
Chapter 24 Menthol
Chapter 25 Methamphetamine
Chapter 26 Morphine (and heroin)
Chapter 27 Muscone and synthetic musks
Chapter 28 Nylon
Chapter 29 Octanal
Chapter 30 Octane and its isomers
Chapter 31 Paracetamol, Tylenol and other coal-tar derived painkillers
Chapter 32 Penicillin
Chapter 33 Polythene
Chapter 34 Quinine
Chapter 35 Scopolamine
Chapter 36 "Spice"
Chapter 37 Streptomycin
Chapter 38 Sulfanilamide
Chapter 39 Taxol
Chapter 40 Terylene
Chapter 41 Tetracycline and other members of the family
Chapter 42 Tetraethyl lead
Chapter 43 Tetrodotoxin
Chapter 44 Thalidomide
Chapter 45 Vanillin
Chapter 46 Vaska's compound
Chapter 47 VX, sarin and other early nerve agents
Chapter 48 Water
Chapter 49 Wilkinson's catalyst
Chapter 50 Zingerone
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Simon Cotton obtained his BSc and PhD in the Chemistry department of Imperial College London, followed by research and teaching appointments at Queen Mary College, London, and the University of East Anglia. He subsequently taught chemistry in both state and independent schools for over 30 years, then in 2011 he became an honorary senior lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Birmingham, where for five years he taught inorganic and organic chemistry. He has published research on the chemistry of iron, cobalt, scandium, yttrium and the lanthanide elements in particular.
His “Soundbite Molecules” feature ran as a regular column in the magazine
Education in Chemistry from 1996 to 2012, reaching every secondary school in the UK. He has written over 100 “Molecules of the Month” articles, which are featured online at
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/motm.htm and recognised globally. Additionally, he has delivered over forty “Chemistry in Its Element” podcasts for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Chemistry World website at http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/.
In 2005 he shared the Royal Society of Chemistry Schools Education Award and in 2014 was awarded the British Empire Medal for his work in chemistry and education.
He was editor of “Lanthanide and Actinide Compounds” for the Dictionary of
Organometallic Compounds and the Dictionary of Inorganic Compounds (Chapman and Hall) between 1984 and 1997. He wrote the account of lanthanide coordination chemistry for the second edition of Comprehensive Coordination Chemistry the accounts of lanthanide inorganic and coordination chemistry for the first and second editions of the Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry.
This is his tenth book; his previous books are
D. J. Cardin, S. A. Cotton, M. Green, and J. A. Labinger, Organometallic Compounds of the Lanthanides, Actinides and Early Transition Metals, 1985.
S. A. Cotton, Building The Late Mediaeval Suffolk Parish Church, 2019.
S. A. Cotton, Chemistry of Precious Metals, 1997.
S. A. Cotton, Every Molecule Tells a Story, 2012: second edition 2026.
S. A. Cotton, Every Molecule Matters
S. A. Cotton, Lanthanide and Actinide Chemistry, 2006; second edition 2024.
S. A. Cotton, Lanthanides and Actinides, 1991.
S. A. Cotton and F. A. Hart, The Heavy Transition Elements, 1975.
P. W. May and S. A. Cotton, Molecules That Amaze Us, 2015.
