Reflections on symmetry

Edgar Heilbronner, Jack D. Dunitz

"Heilbronner and Dunitz are both professors of chemistry. Although their book is aimed primarily at scientists, the authors hope it will also appeal to scientists in general, and, indeed, to laymen with an interest in the development of science from its cloudy beginnings to its pervasive influence in modern society. Rather than going into the formal mathematical background, the authors describe how symmetry concepts inherited from the early Greek philosophers began to enter scientific thought. In chemistry, the main impact has been on the development of the molecular hypothesis. Once it became recognized that molecules were just more or less stable arrangements of atoms in space, symmetry concepts began to play an ever increasing role in chemical science - not only in specialist areas such as spectroscopy, crystallography, and theoretical chemistry, but also in the everyday activities...

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