Cathedrals of Science: The Personalities and Rivalries That Made Modern Chemistry

Like any other human endeavor, chemistry was built by real people, with all their strengths and faults. Cathedrals of Science describes its construction--the intersection of science and personality that transformed chemistry, with its chemists struggling for understanding, squabbling over scientific credit, and making moral choices about chemical warfare, totalitarianism, and nuclear weapons.

Coffey spent most of his career in the design of instruments for chemical research and was a co-founder of a number of scientific instrument companies. In 2003, he began research into the history of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.