Positioned at the crossroads of the physical and biological sciences, chemistry deals with neither the infinitely small, nor the infinitely large, nor directly with life. So it is sometimes thought of as dull, the way things in the middle often are. But this middle ground is precisely where human beings exist. As Hoffmann shows in his inspired prose, the world observed at its molecular level is complex and agitated, as are the emotions of the supposedly dispassionate scientists who explore it. In The Same and Not the Same the vital tensions of chemistry are revealed; with down-to-earth...

This unique book shows how chemistry and physics come together in the solid state and on surfaces. Using a lively, graphic, descriptive approach, it teaches chemists the language that is necessary to understand the electronic structure of extended systems. And, at the same time, it demonstrates how a chemical, frontier-orbital, approach to solid state and surface bonding and reactivity may be constructed.

The book begins with the language of crystal orbitals, band structures and densities of states. The tools for moving back from the highly delocalized orbitals of the solid are...