In Molecules That Changed the World (Wiley-VCH), the award-winning chemist, KC Nicolaou reveals the secrets behind the history and the chemistry of these ground-breaking discoveries
Chemistry now determines not just how we live, but how long we live.
While its power to kill or cure increasingly shapes the modern way of life.
From wonder drugs to everyday painkillers, nerve poisons to essential vitamins, chemical discovery has changed society and human history.
Antibiotics, painkillers, vitamins, anti-cancer drugs and neurotoxins have dramatically changed the modern world, fuelling long life, social change and modern warfare.
From the political implications of high toxicity neurotoxins such as Brevetoxin B to the remarkable life-saving qualities of the anti-cancer agent Taxol, Molecules That Changed the World shows how chemistry has given the power to both kill and cure with dramatic effect.
And as the book shows, chemistry has also had dramatic social effects from the discovery and creation of the pill, which fuelled the sixties, to the devastating neurotoxins that haunt international relations in the 21st century.
Professor Nicolaou, the multi-award winning chemist and leading thinker in the field of medicinal chemistry, provides a unique insight into over 30 of the most famous chemicals in history.
With his understanding of synthesis and medicinal chemistry, he brings to light the remarkable process of discovery and explores the often long historical use of substances, such as Aspirin.
This book is in the great tradition of major scientific thinkers bringing a specialist area of scientific study to public understanding.
"In many areas of the modern world molecules play an important role," stated Nicolaou.
"For example, everyone needs vitamin B12 for survival, and aspirin is one of the most widely used pharmaceuticals in the world.
"The insight this book provides should prove useful to everyone from students, scientists and medical doctors to ordinary consumers".
KC Nicolaou currently serves as chairman of the department of chemistry, is the Skaggs professor of chemical biology and holds the Darlene Shiley chair in chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute, and he is also a distinguished professor of chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, California.
He has been honoured with more than 40 national and international awards, including the Aspirin prize (Spain), the Schering prize (Germany), the August-Wilhelm-von-Hofmann-Denkmunze award (Germany), the Rhone-Polenc medal (Royal Society of Chemistry, UK), the Nagoya gold medal (Japan), the Bodossaki prize (Greece), and the Linus Pauling medal (American Chemical Society, USA).
He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), and has 12 honorary degrees from various universities around the world.
Tamsyn Montagnon earned a bachelor's degree (BSc) in medicinal chemistry from the University of Leeds and a doctorate of philosophy degree (PhD) from the University of Sussex.
She was awarded the GlaxoWellcome postdoctoral fellowship and joined Nicolaou's group at the Scripps Research Institute (2001-2003).
She is currently a Marie Curie fellow within the department of chemistry of the University of Crete (Greece).
Molecules That Changed the World draws on the expertise of the authors who have an interest in chemical synthesis and molecular architecture as well as in the biological activities of natural and designed molecules.
