Chemistry in the World helps students become familiar with the ways in which chemistry is relevant to society and everyday life on personal, local, and global levels.

The book presents chemical concepts in the context of their social applications and focuses on those most relevant to our common daily experiences and global challenges. It provides students with an appreciation for the applicability, visibility, and universality of chemistry, and an understanding of the reciprocal relationship between the science of chemistry and the organism of society.

The fourth edition has been reorganized into 13 chapters, which cover the composition of the atmosphere, carbon-based life forms, chemistry of water, acids and bases, pharmaceuticals and poisons, nuclear chemistry, and more. A new chapter titled "A Swiftly Warming Planet" addresses the timely issue of global warming and presents readers with the latest research-based climate assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This edition includes two new pedagogical features, which explore interesting exceptions to general rules in chemistry, as well as questions real students have asked and common areas of confusion.

Chemistry in the World is an excellent comprehensive introduction to the subject, but more importantly, the book teaches students that chemistry is more than the stuff of science; it is the stuff of life.