• Popular science writing at its very best
• Takes newcomers to the subject all the way up to current research in new areas of chemistry
• A non-traditional approach to chemistry, focusing on what chemistry might become during this century, rather than a survey of its past
• Concentrates on molecules in living systems, and on how synthetic chemistry often takes its inspiration from organic molecules

The processes in a single living cell are akin to that of a city teeming with molecular inhabitants that move, communicate, cooperate, and compete. In this Very Short Introduction, Philip Ball explores the role of the molecule in and around us - how, for example, a single fertilized egg can grow into a multi-celled Mozart, what makes spider's silk insoluble in the morning dew, and how this molecular dynamism is being captured in the laboratory, promising to reinvent chemistry as the central creative science of the century.

Readership: General readers interested in popular science; students of chemistry and biochemistry at school and college level; professional scientists working in chemistry (including industry), biochemistry, pharmacology, materials science, and IT; science teachers.