Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society

Citation

American Chemical Society, Fahlman, B. D., Purvis-Roberts, K., Bouvier-Brown, N., Kirk, J. S., Sloan, C. C., Kelly, R. M., Daubenmire, P. L., & Ryan, S. (2024). Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society (2024 release). McGraw-Hill Education.

Chapter Summary

Chemistry in Context is a project of the American Chemical Society that has run since 1993; the 2024 release has about 650 pages in 14 chapters. The publisher states its goal as establishing chemical principles "on a need-to-know basis" for non-science majors, so that they learn chemistry through their own lives and through issues such as climate change, renewable energy, alternative fuels, nutrition and genetic engineering. Each chapter is therefore named after a topic rather than a branch of chemistry, and the chemistry is introduced where the topic requires it. In-chapter "Your Turn" questions are answered in an appendix, as are selected end-of-chapter questions (marked in blue in the text). Further appendices cover metric prefixes, conversion factors and constants, exponents ("The Power of Exponents") and logarithms ("Clearing the Logjam"); there is a glossary. The book is published under McGraw Hill's "Evergreen" model, in which content is updated in dated releases rather than numbered editions.

Chapter 1: Portable Electronics: The Periodic Table in the Palm of Your Hand

The opening chapter takes portable electronic devices as its context, and its title links the periodic table to the materials inside them.

Chapters 2–4: The Air We Breathe; Radiation from the Sun; Climate Change

Three chapters on the atmosphere: the composition and quality of the air, radiation reaching Earth from the Sun, and climate change. This is the part of the book that corresponds most directly to an environmental chemistry course.

Chapter 5: Water Everywhere: A Most Precious Resource

Water as a resource, the context for the book's treatment of water and aqueous solutions.

Chapters 6–8: Energy from Combustion; Nuclear Energy and Other Alternative Sources; Energy Storage

Three chapters on energy: combustion of fuels, nuclear energy together with other alternative sources, and the storage of energy.

Chapter 9: The World of Polymers and Plastics

Polymers and plastics, the materials that the publisher's introduction names among everyday products that depend on chemistry.

Chapters 10–13: Brewing and Chewing; Nutrition; Health & Medicine; Genes and Life

The second half of the book turns to food and biology: chemistry in food and drink, nutrition, health and medicine, and genetics.

Chapter 14: Who Killed Dr. Thompson? A Forensic Mystery

The final chapter is framed as a forensic case.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–5: Materials, atmosphere and water

• Periodic table: the organisation of the elements that Chapter 1 connects to everyday devices.
• Air quality: the composition of the air and the substances that degrade it, the topic of Chapter 2.
• Solar radiation: the energy that reaches Earth from the Sun, treated in Chapter 3 before climate change in Chapter 4.
• Water as a resource: the chemistry of water framed by its availability and use.

Chapters 6–9: Energy and materials

• Combustion: the burning of fuels as a source of energy.
• Alternative energy sources: nuclear energy and other sources treated together in Chapter 7.
• Energy storage: ways of storing energy, the subject of Chapter 8.
• Polymers: large molecules built from repeating units, the basis of plastics.

Chapters 10–14: Food, health and life

• Nutrition: the chemistry of the substances in food that the body uses.
• Genetic engineering: one of the issues the publisher names, connected to the chapter on genes and life.
• Forensic chemistry: chemistry applied to a criminal investigation, the frame of the last chapter.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Built for students who would not otherwise take chemistry. The publisher aims the book at non-science majors, and the chapter structure follows topics those students already care about. The book's opening statement, quoted in its catalogue description, argues that most chemistry textbooks give little detail about real-world applications and presents Chemistry in Context as the alternative.
• A long-running, society-backed project. The book has been developed under the American Chemical Society since 1993, and the 2024 release continues the contextual framework of earlier editions.
• Self-checking built in. "Your Turn" questions within chapters are answered in Appendix 4, and selected end-of-chapter questions in Appendix 5, so students can check their own progress; the appendices on exponents and logarithms support students whose mathematics is rusty.
• Broad societal coverage. Energy, climate, water, materials, food, medicine and genetics all appear, which suits general-education courses that aim at scientific literacy.

Limitations

• Not a systematic chemistry course. Because principles are introduced only where a topic needs them, the book does not build general chemistry in the usual order, and students heading for science majors will still need a standard general chemistry text.
• Only partly environmental. Roughly half of the chapters (2–8) concern air, climate, water and energy; Chapters 10–14 move to food, health, genetics and forensics. In an environmental chemistry course the later chapters are optional.
• Limited quantitative depth. The need-to-know approach and the inclusion of appendices on exponents and logarithms indicate a modest mathematical level; the book is not designed for calculations of concentrations, fluxes or lifetimes of the kind that environmental chemistry courses for science students require.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the course's entry point for readers without a science background, and the only book on the list written for non-science majors. Jonathan Raff and Ronald Hites's Elements of Environmental Chemistry is the natural next step for science students: a short, quantitative, problem-based introduction that turns the topics of Chapters 2–5 (atmosphere, ozone, climate, water) into calculations. Stanley Manahan's Environmental Chemistry is a full textbook applying chemical principles to the atmosphere, water, soil and living systems for students with general chemistry. Mike Lancaster's Green Chemistry: An Introductory Text treats the design of less harmful chemical products and processes, which Chemistry in Context touches only through its energy and materials chapters.

The graduate texts on the list, Seinfeld and Pandis's Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics and Schwarzenbach, Gschwend and Imboden's Environmental Organic Chemistry, are several steps beyond this book and are not realistic follow-ons without a full chemistry degree course in between.

How to Use This Book

The book suits general-education science courses, first-year students who have not studied chemistry since school, and science students who want an issues-based overview before a technical course. School-level algebra and science are enough; the appendices on exponents and logarithms cover the mathematical tools most often needed.

A practical plan:

• For an environmental focus: Chapters 1–8 in order. Chapter 1 introduces the periodic table through portable electronics; Chapters 2–4 cover the atmosphere and climate; Chapter 5 water; Chapters 6–8 energy.
• For a broader literacy course: add Chapter 9 on polymers and choose among Chapters 10–14 according to students' interests (food and nutrition, medicine, genetics, forensics).
• Practice: answer every "Your Turn" question as it appears and check it in Appendix 4; for end-of-chapter questions, start with those marked in blue, whose answers are in Appendix 5.

Science students who use the book as background should follow it with Raff and Hites for quantitative environmental problem-solving, or with a standard general chemistry text for systematic coverage of the principles. Because the content is updated in releases, check that the release in hand matches the one a course specifies.