Vanity, Vitality, and Virility: The Science Behind the Products You Love to Buy - Couverture rigide

Emsley, John

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0192805096 ISBN 13 : 9780192805096

Editeur : Oxford University Press, 2004

Synopsis

"Vanity, Vitality, and Virility" is essentially a collection of 'portraits' loosely arranged into 'galleries' that bring together related themes. While it will not advise you what to do if you want to improve your looks, your health, your peace of mind, or your sex life, it does explain the science behind many of the products that claim to be able to do just that. It looks at a range of products and ingredients that impinge on our everyday life and explains in plain language how 30 commonly encountered chemicals work, and how and why we use them. Chapter one, Vanity - no more wrinkles? has an entry on alpha-hydroxy acids. Advertisers call them 'natural fruit acids' but they are products of the chemical industry. They can improve the skin by penetrating the outer layer and stimulating the growth of new skin. But do they really remove wrinkles? Chapter two, Vitality - food for thought, tackles dietary fats: trans fats, essential fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6 fats), conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which some say is a necessary preventive against breast cancer despite coming only from animal fats. Chapter three, Virility, Sterility, and Viagra, has a section on 'more and better sex': what natural substances act as aphrodisiacs and can chemists improve upon them? There are substances that can enhance sexual performance and heighten orgasm. How to they work, and are they safe? Chapter four, Germ warfare, contains a section on Hypochlorite: so-called chlorine bleach. It doesn't actually contain chlorine but hypochlorite, and it is this that gives it the power to 'kill all germs stone dead'. But there have been campaigns to ban it because it produces other chemicals when added to water. Chapter five, It's all in the mind, deals with depression and anti-depressants: Prozac, Lithium (used to treat manic depression: the odd thing is that lithium shouldn't work, but does), and Aluminium, once wrongly convicted of causing Alzheimer's Disease. Chapter six, Polymers in unlikely guises, ranges from super-absorbent polymers (SAPs) used in tampons and nappies, to 'whispering asphalt' which modifies bitumen by adding polymers, resulting in road surfaces which are quieter and which produce less spray.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Vanity, Vitality, and Virility is a fascinating portrait gallery of chemicals involved in our everyday life, from Viagra and selenium to whispering asphalt, nappies, and chewing gum. While it will not advise you what to do if you want to improve your looks, your health, your peace of mind or your sex life, it explains the science behind many of the products that claim to be able to do just that. Chemistry is too often associated with poisonous gases and strange bubbling solutions, yet it is all around us, and inside us too. Renowned science communicator John Emsley lifts the lid on the secrets inside the products we use every day.

Biographie de l'auteur

John Emsley is a freelance writer and Science Writer in Residence at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of several popular science books, including the Consumer's Good Chemical Guide, which won the Science Book Prize in 1995.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Oxford University Press
• Date d'édition: 2004
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0192805096
• ISBN 13: 9780192805096
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 272
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Messaggerie Libri; ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it; ; Via Verdi, 8; Assago Milano; Italie