The processes in a single living cell are akin to that of a city teeming with molecular inhabitants that move, communicate, cooperate, and compete. This book explores the role of the molecule in and around us, and how this molecular dynamism is being captured in the laboratory, to reinvent chemistry as the central creative science of the century.

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.

1. Engineers of the Invisible: Making molecules
2. Vital Signs: The molecules of life
3. Take the Strain: Materials from molecules
4. The Burning Issue: Molecules and energy
5. Good Little Movers: Molecular motors
6. Delivering the Message: Molecular communication
7. The Chemical Computer: Molecular informatoin
Notes and Further Reading