Overview This compilation is an essential reference work for every chemist - particularly organic chemists. It is a handbook of up-to-date knowledge on many of the chemical compounds in our chemical world, and their contexts. Not only is each chapter full of fascinating facts, but each chapter examines the molecules from a different perspective. Here, this reviewer provides commentaries on each of the chapters. Chapter 1: Food What differentiates this book from others that cover the topic of food is that, upfront Dr. Cotton discusses the taste of foods: "So the core of this chapter is to consider molecules responsible for flavour sensations in a range of foods, both cooked and uncooked ". This topic is especially relevant to those who, through chemotherapy, or though viral infections, lose their ability to experience the food sensations. According to Dr.

Cotton, roast beef has been the most studied, the delightful smell (to most carnivores) coming primarily from: methional, 2-acetylthiazole, and 2- acetylthiazolidine, 2-ethyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazine, and 2,3-diethyl-5- methylpyrazine. While fried chicken exudes a completely different array of complex molecules. Eye-opener for this reviewer! The diversity of odiferous molecules from different cheeses was also fascinating, as were those from the baking process. Vegetarians and vegans need not despair as there are many, many, pages on odours from raw and cooked vegetables and fruit. Chapter 2: Vitamins As Dr. Cotton notes in the introduction, vitamins are "are an untidy collection of complex organic nutrients." This chapter is built around the discovery of vitamins, particularly through the diseases they prevented. In the descriptions, exceptional care has been taken to accord the correct attributions of discovery and the discovery process.

Then follows a detailed discussion of every vitamin and its chemistry. Chapter 3: Spices, ''Hot'' and ''Cold'' After the usual outstanding historical background to the discovery and spread of spices around the world, Dr. Cotton focusses upon their mode of action. This includes very useful facts, including: "Much of a capsaicinoid molecule is hydrophobic and so not water-soluble, which is why reaching for the water jug or a beer is not the answer to a curry that is too hot for you; it is thought that milk is the best option, as it contains the lipophilic casein, which is better at removing the lipid-like capsaicins". Chapter 4: Abused Painkillers and other Drugs of Abuse This chapter commences with a lengthy - and fascinating - discourse on the history of opium ["a mixture that involves over 20 different alkaloid molecules"] and its wide acceptance: "As an over-the-counter cure-all, it was the equivalent of aspirin a century later for many people - but better. It was a painkiller, a sedative and a specific treatment for diarrhoea". Dr. Cotton has a superlative coverage of fentanyl and its many derivatives.

He describes the incredible toxicity of the fentanyl family requiring the wearing of hazmat suits when handling even the smallest dose. He also describes its probable use to break the 2002 siege by Chichen terrorists of 900 people in the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow, by pumping an aerial suspension into the ventilation system of the Theatre and then treating as many as possible of the hostages with fentanyl antagonists. It is such unusual fact and applications which makes this compilation so interesting. There is also a lengthy coverage of oxycodone and its relatives, including "Krokodil", and many other addictive drugs. Chapter 5: Nasty Smelling Molecules What an unusual - but very appropriate - chapter title for an academic book! It is, of course, a focus upon molecules with high vapour pressure containing nitrogen and/or sulfur atoms. Again, Dr. Cotton surprises the reader by a lengthy - and absorbing - discourse on truffles: "The black truffle produces some 80 volatile molecules, including a lot of aldehydes, ketones and esters". Then, a digression on :"the smelliest plant in the world, the titan arum Amorphophallus titanum .

It flowers irregularly, every few years, and then just for two or three days. The [rotten-flesh] smell helps it to attract the kind of insects, which like to feed on decaying flesh - flies and carrion beetles - whilst its deep red inflorescence looks like meat. The titan arum and several others that produce the rotting flesh smell owe their odour to mixtures of dimethyl disulphide and dimethyl trisulphide." Chapter 6: War and Peace in Nature And what curiosities does the reader find in this chapter? Surely the section on plant defences is the most fascinating. As Dr. Cotton remarks: "Plants are at the bottom of the food chain. Though it sounds like confused biology to use the expression, they seem like sitting ducks. Vulnerable, yes, but they have a range of tricks up their sleeves to defend themselves against predators" - many of which Dr.

Cotton describes. Of course, insects with their mobility, have an amazing array of defensive and offensive options. One of the many amazing examples is: "Soldier termites of the Australian species Nasutitermes exitiosus do something even more complicated; they have been described by the authors of the book '' Secret Weapons '' as ''mobile artillery units''. They fire their weapon from a gland on their heads, not their abdomens, but again it can be directed, ahead; to the sides; and even behind them." Chapter 7: Organochlorine Compounds Dr. Cotton ends this chapter with what might be more appropriate as an opening statement: "The world contains an amazing variety of organochlorine compounds - some are ''natural'', some wholly synthetic. Some of these compounds are toxic or harmful in other ways, but others are not just useful substances but quite safe into the bargain. Molecules are ''morally neutral''; they do not display their good or bad sides until they come into contact with people".

This chapter opens with a lengthy and detailed coverage of the history of DDT''s ''rise and fall.'' Then amongst other compounds, he describes the large number of the fungal-derived chloro-antibiotics, where they were found and their amazing complex structures. Chapter 8: Organofluorine Compounds To begin this chapter, Dr. Cotton discusses in depth how, though fluorine and chlorine are in the same Periodic Table Group, difference in bond energies and electronegativities lead to some very different behaviour and properties in analogous compounds. About half the chapter is consumed by an in-context discussion of chlorofluorocarbons. Then PFOS and its family are covered, followed by fluoro-anesthetics, and fluoro-pharmaceuticals. Chapter 9: Smoking and Vaping Opening this chapter is a fascinating detailed of the history of smoking tobacco around the world. As usual, the account is sprinkled with asides that make this book such a fascinating read: "But the practice of cigarette smoking did not catch on at once [in Britain], until the American invention (Virginia, again) of the cigarette making machine in 1880, which chopped cigarettes from a tube of paper-wrapped tobacco, and which could make up to 212 cigarettes per minute".

Dr. Cotton then enters the incredibly complex world of vaping, which he tells us at the beginning: "A Chinese pharmacist named Hon Lik is often given the credit for inventing the precursor of the modern devices in 2003, as an aid to stopping smoking, after his father died of lung cancer (Spoiler: Hon Lik still smokes)". Chapter 10: Isotopes at Work Commencing with a review of the history of isotope coverage, Dr. Cotton then reviews some of the isotope relevance of hydrogen, lead, uranium, and others. Of course, we can rely on Dr. Cotton to find some fascinating information which few would know. In this case, the selling of synthetic vanilla as expensive "natural vanilla." He explains: Plants make vanillin via a biochemical pathway that results in a higher 13C/12C ratio than that found in synthetic vanillin, .

But the counterfeiters got round this by putting vanillin molecules with extra 13C into their fraudulent ''vanilla extract'', so that their vanillin samples matched the "natural" ratio." Nevertheless, the fake vanilla extract can still be identified, as Dr. Cotton explains: "Carbons outside the aromatic ring are easier to introduce; because of this chemical inequivalence between the carbon atoms in the aromatic ring and those carbon atoms that are substituent groups, the distribution of the 13C atoms in ''faked'' vanillin is non-uniform, with greater numbers in the aldehyde and methoxy substituent positions." In summary This book represents a life-time of accumulated knowledge by Dr. Cotton of chemistry in the real world. This includes many more anecdotes and asides than are selected here. Sprinkled through the chapters are the chemicals structures and many reaction mechanisms. For an organic chemist, these provide a greater depth of comprehension.

Should the reader not be so inclined, the text alone is worth the cost of this book. The reader cannot claim to be truly knowledgeable about the chemistry of the world we live in, unless they have read this book and retained it as an ever-ready reference source. Geoff Rayner-Canham, F.R.S.C., F.C.

I.C. Grenfell Campus, Memorial University Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada In a continuation of Simon Cotton''s 2012 "Every Molecule Tells a Story," his new book, "Every Molecule Matters", covers in great detail the story of Food, Vitamins, Hot and Cold, Abused Pain Killers and Other Drugs of Abuse, Nasty Smells, War and Peace, Organochlorine Compounds, Organofluorine Compou.