A Primer to Mechanism In Organic Chemistry

Customer Reviews:

Primer Review.......2001-08-23

This is a very good book for understanding the basics of organic reactions and synthesis. I found Syke's Guidebook disorienting and hard to follow, even tho I know it is full of excellent information. But why is it, that while everyone agrees that OChem is very overwhelming and complicated - so many books on the subject are also overwhelming and complicated. That being so, I have given up and try and work with these books as they are. Syke's Primer is a good begining and concentrates on the three basic forms of reactions: addition, substitution and elimination; and then the basic reasons behind the reactions: nucleophilic, electrophilic, etc. That's pretty simple and he repeats himself through the whole book. I felt it was simplistic but then it's really not a simple topic and I might as well as learn it over and over and in different ways. I am not proud and Ochem is humbling, it's like waking up in a foreign country and having to speak a new language, always subtle (and big) mistakes, and lots of repetition. Now I feel more confident with Syke's Guidebook, and its excellent index. This is an excellent first book for begining students and others who really want to understand the basics and go from there.

A clear guide to mechanistic organic chemistry.......2000-08-28

A Primer to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry provides a straightforward and simple account of the mechanistic principles underpinning organic chemistry. Instead of dividing organic chemistry by functional groups, as most standard chemistry textbooks do, Sykes adopts a new and original approach to explaining the topic. Reactions are divided into substitution, addition and elimination; reagents are either nucleophiles, electrophiles or radicals; and there are only two effects which influence the behaviour of a bond or group within a molecule, that is, electronic and steric. Hence, this enables the systematic study of the vast topic area of organic chemistry.

The first chapter is an introduction outlining the basic principles and terms commonly used in organic chemistry, such as functional group, types of reactions and bond polarity.

From there the text is divided into the three types of reactions, with a chapter dealing with each of the reaction-reagent types, such as nucleophilic substitution, radical addition, electrophilic elimination and so on.

Within each chapter each reaction is dealt with carefully giving a clear explanation why a specific reaction occurs via the pathway it does, providing the supporting experimental evidence wherever possible. To ensure that each of these explanations is as straightforward as possible there is no discussion of bonding involving orbital theory or chemical energetics.

Each chapter is, on the whole, clearly illustrated with comprehensive cross-referencing between each of the chapters. The key points are re-stated in the summaries at the end of each chapter.

However, I feel that the text would be improved by careful analysis of each of the figures. The prime example being [5.17], p.75, which is clearly incorrect; but other inaccuracies also exist. The text would also benefit from a further reading section, especially as it is stated to be a less sophisticated guide to organic mechanisms.

Book Description

Mechanisms of Organic Reactions is aimed at first and second year chemistry undergraduates. This authorative and up-to-date overview begins with a chapter in which modern terminology, definitions, and concepts of mechanisms and reactivity are introduced. The following four chapters are accounts of the mechanisms of four of the main classes of reactions of aliphatic compounds. However, rather than simply being presented with the mechanism, the reader is first given the experimental evidence, and then shown how this leads to the mechanistic deductions. With problems at the end of each chapter and a short bibliography this book will be invaluable to first and second year chemistry undergraduates.

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing.......2001-08-03

I recommend buying "Foundations of Organic Chemistry" (same publisher) instead. This book is way to brief to be very helpful. There are lots of things missing. I do not recommend. The best book on mechanisms, however, is "The Art of Writing Reasonable Reaction Mechanisms".

Mechanisms of Organic Reactions (Oxford Chemistry Primers, 45)

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Mechanisms of Organic Reactions (Oxford Chemistry Primers, 45)
Howard Maskill
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OL2S96

Book Description

Elie Metchnikoff (1845-1916), winner of the Nobel Prize in 1907 for his contributions to immunology, was first a comparative zoologist, who, working in the wake of Darwin's On the Origin of Species, made seminal contributions to evolutionary biology. His work in comparative embryology is best known in regard to the debates with Ernst Haeckel concerning animal genealogical relationships and the theoretical origins of metazoans. But independent of those polemics, Metchnikoff developed his `phagocytosis theory' of immunity as a result of his early comparative embryology research, and only in examining the full breadth of his work do we appreciate his signal originality. Metchnikoff's scientific papers have remained largely untranslated into English. Assembled here, annotated and edited, are the key evolutionary biology papers dating from Metchnikoff's earliest writings (1865) to the texts of his mature period of the 1890s, which will serve as an invaluable resource for those interested in the historical development of evolutionary biology.

Book Description

Most of the numerical predictions of experimental phenomena in particle physics over the last decade have been made possible by the discovery and exploitation of the simplifications that can happen when phenomena are investigated on short distance and time scales. This book provides a coherent exposition of the techniques underlying these calculations. After reminding the reader of some basic properties of field theories, examples are used to explain the problems to be treated. Then the technique of dimensional regularization and the renormalization group. Finally a number of key applications are treated, culminating in the treatment of deeply inelastic scattering.

Customer Reviews:

Very useful for the student who practices renormalization for the first time.......2007-01-18

It really shed light on some concepts that other books simply do not discuss. It is also the only one I know that gives a theoretical basis for understanding dimensional regularization.

The Theory of Critical Phenomena: An Introduction to the Renormalization Group (Oxford Science Publications)

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A nice presentation of the field-theoretic version of RG

The Theory of Critical Phenomena: An Introduction to the Renormalization Group (Oxford Science Publications)
J.J. Binney , N. J. Dowrick , A. J. Fisher , M. E. J. Newman , N.J. Dowrick , A.J. Fisher , and M.E.J. Newman
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0198513933

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The successful calculation of critical exponents for continuous phase transitions is one of the main achievements of theoretical physics over the last quarter-century. This was achieved through the use of scaling and field-theoretic techniques which have since become standard equipment in many areas of physics, especially quantum field theory. This book provides a thorough introduction to these techniques. Continuous phase transitions are introduced, then the necessary statistical mechanics is summarized, followed by standard models, some exact solutions and techniques for numerical simulations. The real-space renormalization group and mean-field theory are then explained and illustrated. The final chapters cover the Landau-Ginzburg model, from physical motivation, through diagrammatic perturbation theory and renormalization to the renormalization group and the calculation of critical exponents above and below the critical temperature.

Customer Reviews:

A nice presentation of the field-theoretic version of RG.......2000-06-01

This is a highly pedagogical book on the theory of critical phenomena and the renormalization group (RG). Field-theoretic methods are introduced gradually, and the physics is always illustrated with well-chosen examples. Technical details are explained thoroughlly and oftentimes summarized in ``boxes'' which span most of the book. At the end of every chapter, a set of problems allows the reader to test his/her understanding of the subject matter, and solutions to the problems are provided at the end of the book. Two regrets though: (i) that the authors did not touch at all the (less rigorous) but highly intuitive and widely used momentum shell renormalization group technique; and (ii) that the treatment of two-dimensional systems and the Kosterlitz thouless transition is a little superficial. Apart from that, this book is just great. A very useful book.

Introduction to Renormalization Group Methods in Physics

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Introduction to Renormalization Group Methods in Physics
Richard J. Creswick , Horacio A. Farach , and Charles P. Poole
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 047160013X

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The final book in C. S. Lewis's acclaimed Space Trilogy, which includes Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, That Hideous Strength concludes the adventures of the matchless Dr. Ransom. The dark forces that were repulsed in Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra are massed for an assault on the planet Earth itself. Word is on the wind that the mighty wizard Merlin has come back to the land of the living after many centuries, holding the key to ultimate power for that force which can find him and bend him to its will. A sinister technocratic organization is gaining power throughout Europe with a plan to "recondition" society, and it is up to Ransom and his friends to squelch this threat by applying age-old wisdom to a new universe dominated by science. The two groups struggle to a climactic resolution that brings the Space Trilogy to a magnificent, crashing close.

Customer Reviews:

A crazy but effective mix of characters.......2007-10-07

Number one, I would probroably give "That Hideous Strenght" a 4.5 instead of a five. I have two issues with the novel, it is somewhat slow in places and the ending should have had a more climatic feel.
Thankfully, the book has many positive attributes which more than outweigh the negative ones. When Lewis is at his best, his work is exceptionally interesting. The charcters cover a vast range from college professors to Merlin. The villans are the most interesting as they range from a power-hungry politician to mad sceientists to the sadistic pervert Fairy Hardcastle. One villian is even apparently based on H.G. Wells (this is the character who had became famous righting novels). Overall, a messed up but very enjoyable work with some positive Christian messeges.

Disappointing end to otherwise wonderful trilogy.......2007-10-05

While this book had all the elements that I loved in the previous two books (satire, allegory, poetic description), it was really lacking the cohesion of the other two and was generally a disappointing end to the Space Trilogy 3 Book Set Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra & That Hideous Strength C.S. Lewis. Lewis seems very caught up in the politics of academia for the first third of the book, and then suddenly remembers the fantasy genre. The last third of the book features a rather anti-climactic battle that seemed to be a pastiche of several different mythologies.

All that said, there is still a lot of value in the book. There are some deftly drawn characters unlike anything I've read in other literature of the 1940s. Lewis' investigation of the complexities of marriage, while it does not go far enough, asks important questions that blend faith and sociology in provocative ways.

If you have read Out of the Silent Planet (Space Trilogy, Book One) and Perelandra (Space Trilogy, Book 2) I would recommend that you finish the trilogy, if for no other reason than plot continuity. I will say that this book does not stand alone as one of Lewis' better works.

Tolkien well described it as "That Hideous Book," .......2007-09-25

The literary disaster that ends Lewis' 'Space Trilogy'.

Unlikeable or unconvincing good guys, cardboard villains, and a wandering plot could not be spruced up into anything interesting, either by a surprise visit from an historical Merlin, reanimated human body parts, or even a grown bear thrown in as a full-fleged party member.

Lewis over-reached himself in this one. Be a big Lewis fan and brew a big pot of coffee if you plan on finishing it.

Better to read Til We Have Faces, if you're looking for some readable and thoughtful adult fiction by Lewis.

Good Secular Reading.......2007-09-14

Very well written. As this book was my second foray into C.S Lewis, (the first being the fantastic "'Till We Have Faces", I never understood where people get the idea that this work has heavy Christian overtones. If anything, it delves into paganism, and what appears to be precursors to Scientology and other UFO cults. If Christianity is a major facet in CS's works, then he may be exploring the underlying knowledge that manifests itself into the various, usually bloated religions, an effort that would otherwise result in his excommunication, or worse.

Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03

Try and do a Jules Verne type story. Take the fun and adventure out. Make it boring and unappealing. Voila. You have C.S. Lewis's planet trilogy. This is a textbook case of how to not do a planetary romance type tale, but rather than philosophical mouthpieces rambling on, crying out for you to close the book.

Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength (Boxed Set)

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Got me hooked on sci-fi
Books to Change One's Life
Soak It Up
Excellent Series
Sublime Christian Fantasy

Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength (Boxed Set)
C. S. Lewis
Manufacturer: MacMillan Publishing Company.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0020223609

Customer Reviews:

Got me hooked on sci-fi.......2007-10-04

I absolutely LOVED this series. My science fiction loving father recommended it and now I have become a sci-fi junkie because of it. A great story that shows our history and future in interesting ideas. Fantastic read.

Books to Change One's Life.......2007-08-14

Books such as these cannot fail to change you. There have been many books in my life which I could say that about, but short of the Bible, I think these surpass them all (Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or G.K. Chesterton's Man Who Was Thursday being the only serious competition).
I cannot speak about these books without a tone of awe, it would be absolutely useless to try and explain why. Please trust me - read these, and many times, too.

Soak It Up.......2007-02-14

Sometimes learning is like sunbathing. You soak up wisdom like you soak up rays--changing, even though you can't pinpoint every little drop that touched you.

I say that because today I completed the second book in C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy. True, I can't name one thing I learned (and this series is much more about exploring concepts than telling a story), but I feel very wise. Before you laugh too hard, let me say that my spirit is quiet right now. It's still. Rested. Open. In awe. Ready to receive.

Today I will continue resting, listening. Tomorrow I'll go back over the pages and remind myself what I learned. (And then I'll start the third book.)

I highly recommend these book, but read them only when you have lots of time to reflect.

Excellent Series.......2006-09-12

Out of the Silent Planet
C.S. Lewis
Scribner Paperback
ISBN 0684823802

This is the first book in C.S. Lewis's amazing Space Trilogy. These books are far less known than Lewis's Narnia series or even his Mere Christianity or The Screwtape Letters, yet it is just as good as any of those writings and goes to show the versatility of Lewis as an author.

This first book begins with our hero, Dr. Ransom, out for a walking tour in the countryside, dressed in that shabby way for which professors are renowned. His foes are his former schoolmates Devine and Weston. These men believe they need a human sacrifice, and by capturing Ransom they have their victim, for they have made a spaceship and are taking Ransom to Malacandra the red planet.

Once on Mars, Ransom escapes his captors, meets many species, and finds out that on Mars there has been no `Fall' and Ransom from Earth or the Silent Planet is a bit of an oddity. People from earth are considered to be `bent' in nature, from the original sin of the fall.

Follow Ransom as he treks across a strange world, and must find the courage to risk it all to save not only an alien race, but also, possibly his own soul.

This is a first book in an amazing series. Try it - you won't be disappointed.

Perelandra
C.S. Lewis
Scribner Paperback
ISBN 0684823829

This is the second book in C.S. Lewis's amazing Space Trilogy. This book was written as a sequel to the immensely popular Out of the Silent Planet but Lewis also wrote it so that the story can stand on its own. So if you haven't read the first you can start here.

This book takes place some time after the first, but we are not sure how long. Ransom has received a summons to Venus, a planet that is just beginning its inhabited life. This planet's `Adam' and `Eve' are on the planet and they must choose to obey God or to reject his law and face a `fall' as has happened on earth.

Ransom must face his old foe Weston, and try to save a planet from great evil. Can he navigate this watery planet; can he negotiate the intricacies of human weakness, temptation and corruption? Can he conquer himself and help others to learn obedience?

This is a great creation story. Try it - you won't be disappointed.

That Hideous Strength
C.S. Lewis
Scribner Paperback
ISBN 0684823853

This is the third and final book in C.S. Lewis's amazing Space Trilogy. This book was written as a sequel to the immensely popular Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra but Lewis also wrote it so that the story can stand on its own. So if you haven't read the first, you can start here.

That Hideous Strength, unlike the first 2 books in this series, where Ransom leaves earth and fights evil in space and on other planets, the battle in this book takes place on earth.

Ransom must lead a group of faithful believers against National Institute for Coordinated Experiments or N.I.C.E., an organization that believes that Science can solve all of humanity's problems. He must battle the people in this organization, super aliens trying to invade and control earth and use its population against other planets and against God.

On top of all of that, Merlin has arisen from his long sleep and has arisen in England's time of greatest need. But the question is, who will find him first - N.I.C.E. or Ransom and his team? The fate of the world, and possibly the universe, rests on this question.

Lewis called this story an adult's fairy-tale. It is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, and a book that will keep your attention as you raptly turn the pages to find out where Lewis will lead you.

Sublime Christian Fantasy.......2005-11-20

I am continually amazed by CS Lewis - his Narnia books were of course, excellent and entertaining, Mere Christianity a tour-de-force in apologetics, and The Great Divorce and Screwtape Letters were astonishing in their fictional applications of Christian doctrine. Finally, the book of his that I found most puzzling - "The Abolition of Man", turns out to be the non-fiction underpinnings for the third volume in this wonderful science fiction/fantasy trilogy. Like a key fitting a lock, the grim prophecies of "The Abolition of Man" are shaped and given character in "That Hideous Strength", and I am left in awe again of Lewis' genius.

But the trilogy does not start with such a complexity. "Out of the Silent Planet" begins mundanely enough, taking the hero Dr. Ransom out of the context of earth to explore the thesis of "what would Christian Truth be like on another planet." Lewis, as in his Narnia series, is quite bold in building his allegory - he takes license that would border on heresy if he weren't so committed to the fundamental integrity of Christianity. Indeed, one gets the feeling that where he bends doctrine in order to accomodate his plot (such as in making the Oyarsa into the makers and shepherds of worlds - contra "The Word" or "Logos"), he does so humbly and innocently. In spite of the fact that Lewis has much more to say, "Out of the Silent Planet" is self-contained and fulfilling.

"Perelandra", the second volume, follows Ransom once more as he is transported to Venus to play a strange role in another planet's Garden of Eden. While enjoyable, Perelandra relied a bit too much on descriptions of terrestrial paradise that were untransferable to the reader - one doesn't get as caught up as Dr. Ransom in the sensual aspects of Eden. Lewis does, however, deftly manage the paradox of "That Happy Fall" - the sin of Adam that led to the miracle of Christ. "Perelandra" is entertaining, but not quite so fulfilling as either the first or last books in the trilogy.

The final volume, "That Hideous Strength" is very unlike the first two in tone and context. Not merely because the action takes place on Earth (and a post-war England that is so like/unlike post-millennial America), but because rather than an exposition or exploration of Christian realities on other worlds, Lewis is engaging the eugenic nightmare threatening to atrophy all of Western Civilization. There was a strange resemblence to GK Chesterton's "The Ball & The Cross". In fact, "That Hideous Strength" was the most Chestertonian of Lewis' works, combining the comic absurdity of philosophies taken to their natural conclusions with the sobering reminder that "this is happening even now". In another weird sense, "That Hideous Strength" reminded me of John Barth's "Giles Goat Boy" (with poor Barth coming out quite unfavorably in the comparison). Perhaps this was only the use of the University as the sphere of action, or the creeping modernism that is Lewis' villain and Barth's savior.

In any case, "That Hideous Strength" masterfully blends the revelations of the preceding volumes in the trilogy along with a sudden infusion of earthly mythology, Arthurian legend, post-war philosophy, and even a bit of J.R.R. Tolkein (quite odd, this last bit!). But the root of "That Hideous Strength" is no fantasy, but a recognition of the apocolyptic desire of man to eat from the tree of knowledge and cheat death - by remaking himself. The word "eugenics" isn't used much any more after the Nazis became its champions. But back in the 30's it was all the range, striking deep into the Roosevelt White House, and carried on to this day under the auspices of Planned Parenthood. Lewis might have forseeen the horrors of man's affair with his own genetics, but this last most chilling development is not captured in "That Hideous Strength".

Here in the 21st century, in the midst of the technology that alarmed CS Lewis, we live in a world of the human genome project, designer babies, clones, fetal stem-cell research, ADHD, "Indigo Children," prisoner rehabilitation, John Hinckley, and dying-with-dignity. One hopes that somewhere out there is a Dr. Ransom monitoring the situation with a Mr. Bultitude standing by. Failing that, one wishes there were another CS Lewis, who, through an intimate grasp of Christianity and a ranging imagination, could skewer the modern eugenicists and stand in the breach against the abolition of man.

Out Of The Silent Planet/Perelandra/That Hideous Strength

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Out Of The Silent Planet/Perelandra/That Hideous Strength

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ASIN: 0739411462

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Three C. S. Lewis novels in one volume. PERELANDRA ; THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH

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That Hideous Strength

Manufacturer: Macmillan & Co., Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: B000HHZB9Q

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Out of the Silent Planet/Perelandra/That Hideous Strength
C. S. Lewis
Manufacturer: Quality Paperback Book Club
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8V16A

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THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH
C.S. Lewis
Manufacturer: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc./New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GSNQBG

That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups

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That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups
C.S. Lewis
Manufacturer: Macmillan Publishing
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: B000JM58MO

Cosmic Trilogy : Out of the Silent Planet - Perelandra - That Hideous Strength

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this should be more popular

Cosmic Trilogy : Out of the Silent Planet - Perelandra - That Hideous Strength

Manufacturer: Pan Books Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Customer Reviews:

this should be more popular.......2004-08-26

With lots of attention on Tolkien's work, and a film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on the way, hopefully more people will discover this wonderful trilogy.

This is C.S. Lewis' fictional series for adults. I find some of his nonfiction apologetic writing to be a bit 'stuffy' (minus the brutal realism of "A Grief Observed"), but his fictional works are fun and fantastic.

The Cosmic (or Space) Trilogy follows the heroic Dr. Ransom on his adventures. He's something of an unlikely hero... heck, he's an Oxford scholar. The first bit of Out of the Silent Planet, the first installment, is a bit slow, but once you exit the Earth's atmosphere it really picks up.

OOTSP follows Ransom on a voyage to Mars. Lewis' interpretation of space flight is quite interesting, too. On Mars (I believe called "Malacandra") he encounters three species. To be honest, I don't remember many of the details of the plot, but rest assured, it's good.

Perelandra takes him to Venus, to a world that has not fallen into a state of sin. It's a sort of extended meditation on sin and the fall. Lewis' depiction of Ransom's arch nemesis, when 'possessed' (I forget his name) is chilling.

That Hideous Strength takes the battle between good and evil to Earth. Again, it starts off a bit slow. Instead of one Oxford scholar, you have a whole bunch. Parts of it reminds me of Hume's "Dialogues..." actually. Oh yeah, there's a bear too. Ransom has become a very wise and powerful man, and the story revolves around their quest to get the ancient magician Merlin on their side to fight the forces of evil.

Those who like fantasy literature should definitely give this series a chance. Also, check into "The Dark Tower," an unfinished story that (I believe) was written after Out of the Silent Planet, featuring some of the same characters. The fancy Oxford guys uncover a parallel universe, and chaos ensues. There's actually some interesting sexual imagery one wouldn't expect from Lewis.

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Die Bose Macht That Hideous Strength
C S Lewis
Manufacturer: HERDER FREIBURG GERMANY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000TNC6U0

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Die Bose Macht That Hideous Strength
C S Lewis
Manufacturer: HERDER FREIBURG GERMANY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000Q13GOK

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