Our Molecular Nature

This book reviews and summarizes the many and varied forms of bioinspiration and biomimicry that are found in chemistry, from the crude to the highly sophisticated, from the near-biological to the totally industrial and abiological. It critically evaluates our true understanding of biological processes and systems by considering our ability to replicate them in non-biological settings. Research chemists will find critical and holistic evaluation of chemical processes in nature.

This introduction to Atomic and Molecular Physics explains how our present model of atoms and molecules has been developed during the last two centuries by many experimental discoveries and from the theoretical side by the introduction of quantum physics to the adequate description of micro-particles. It illustrates the wave model of particles by many examples and shows the limits of classical description. The interaction of electromagnetic radiation with atoms and molecules and its potential for spectroscopy is outlined in more detail and in particular lasers as modern spectroscopic tools are discussed more thoroughly. Many examples and problems with solutions should induce the reader to an intense active cooperation.