What does Napoleon chemistry, nutmeg with fever, an apron with explosives, Prozac with benzene? Is explained by two American chemists, Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burresson in this book about the impact that organic chemistry has had on the history of human societies. And they do it from a legend that one of the causes of the failure of the campaign Russia's Napoleon would have been the collapse of the tin buttons of uniforms, crushed by ice. The conditions were so painful army forced the emperor to retreat. More or less reliable it is, this episode shows how often the story is not so much the result of choices made by man, but the possibilities offered by science and technology. Chapter after chapter, the paper describes how common substances such as pepper, ascorbic acid, glucose, salt, silk, nylon, have marked the development of our society. With a clear and lively, this book is a affacinante journey to discover the links between chemistry, culture and history to understand how important events can depend on something as small as a molecule.
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