R. J. P. Williams, Royal Society Research Professor Emeritus at Wadham College, Oxford University, and J. J. R. Fraústo da Silva, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, have collaborated on two previous volumes: New Trends in Bio-inorganic Chemistry (1978) and The Biological Chemistry of the Elements (3rd printing, 1994). Their latest collaborative effort is a book whose ambitious objective is "to show the relationship of every kind of material around us, living and nonliving, to the properties of the chemical elements of the periodic table." The "natural selection" of the chemical elements results from a number of factors, all of which are described in detail. Among these are chemical affinity related to the electronic configuration of their atoms, thermodynamic and kinetic stability, and "functional value to an organisation such as a living system". The physicist's approach to material through phase structure and the phase rule is stressed rather than the chemist's approach through bonding theories. The entire book possesses a strong environmental and interdisciplinary emphasis.

Part I, "The Principles of the Natural Selection of Chemical Elements into Physical States and Chemical Combinations" (7 chapters, 284 pp), discusses structure and the balance of order and disorder of elements in physical states and in chemical compounds, including the energetics of chemical systems and the kinetics of change. Lengthy descriptions of binding theory, thermodynamics, and techniques such as spectroscopy and magnetism are avoided, thus permitting a minimal use of mathematics.

Part II, "The Observed Natural Selection of Chemical Elements in Both Abiotic and Biotic Systems during Their Evolution" (9 chapters, 346 pp), deals with the material world, illustrating in three ways the selective development of chemical elements in compounds and in particular physical states: description of the evolution of Earth; analysis of the evolution of organic compounds using examples from abiotic or bioorganic chemistry to discuss the early organic compounds found in living systems; and organized biological chemistry, showing how and why life evolved into such complicated organisms. The concluding chapters consider the effect of industry on the environment and reflect a deep concern with the future of the earth.

Most of the usual topics of traditional general and inorganic chemistry courses are treated here, but in an unusual and nontraditional arrangement. Also, the menu features generous portions of physical, organic, nuclear, polymer, bioorganic, environmental, and analytical chemistry as well as biology, biochemistry, geochemistry, geology, mineralogy, physics, and other related sciences. This interdisciplinary book, which is jam-packed with hundreds of figures and tables, is a gold mine of information on an amazing diversity of subjects. Meticulously organized into numbered sections and subsections, each of the 16 chapters is prefaced by an appropriate quotation and concluded by a summary that refers to past and future sections as well as a list of classified and annotated further reading, including books and articles as recent as 1995. An extensive (12 four-column pages) index makes location of data easy.

It is the authors' "intention to give science graduates and especially teachers an opportunity to appreciate the involvement of chemistry within everything that is around usthe world we live in, the immense universe still inaccessible to our understanding, life itselfin a unified approach." They admit that "it is obviously complementary reading, not an undergraduate text, although we would like it to contribute to a reconsideration of the content of general introductory chemistry courses in which fundamental aspects and ideas are still conspicuously absent." They hope "to make society aware of the importance that a better understanding of chemistry has for the future of mankind." Those concerned with this worthy goal-and that should include all of us-will want to read this unusual volume and possibly integrate some of its topics and ideas into their own courses.