The Curious Quantum product reviews

I have always been a bit of a science nerd, and always enjoyed the kitset-nature of chemistry. Electron valence shells made good clear sense, and so it was a lot easier to understand molecular shapes, and thus their binding properties. But I had to learn it the hard way, by wading through textbooks stacked high and deep.

If only books such as these had been available back when I was in highschool... with simple but precise details of the various theories about atomic structure and electron shells, how and why molecules form the shapes they do, etc.

This book is actually two parts: the majority of the book is a series of cut-&-assemble models of atoms, molecules and a really nifty tiered tower which is a very interesting representation of the Periodic Table. Gone is the flat spread-sheet-lookalike, and now we have a multi-leveled cylindrical model that does a much better job of linking all the elements into a coherent pattern. The second part, and by far the most important is the minibook that you cut free of the main book, and compile. This contains all the main information, theories, explainations etc.

Overall, I would rate this as one of the most novel and fascinating books for the beginner chemistry student, and would go as far as to say that a science department without a book like this is not doing it's best for the students.