Chasing molecules ... and Vitamin C

During the course of this week I have finished both Chasing Molecules and an RSC monograph - Vitamin C - its Chemistry and Biochemistry (Davies, Austin and Partridge).

Whilst Chasing Molecules has prompted me to think more carefully about the leaching of pollutants from plastics, I found the book somewhat frustrating; as a scientist I didn't feel I was being presented with real evidence - just a sort of trust-me-I've-read-the-reports. However, the book is clearly written for the educated layman rather than a trained scientist this is probably an unfair criticism, and it is extensively referenced so I could look these studies up if I had time and appropriate library access. Overall, I thought that it was well-written and well-informed, if perhaps a little paranoid.

The book on vitamin C was a delight and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone wishing to know more about ascorbic acid. Undergraduate-level chemistry is probably needed to make the most of the text, particularly the latter sections on redox chemistry and complex formation, but the early chapters covering the discovery, isolation and structure determination of ascorbic acid, as well as scurvy as a medical condition, would be accessible to the general reader.