Cohesion

'… an intricate and intriguing saga … The book admirably fulfills its stated aim of serving historians of science and also physicists or physical chemists curious about the roots of modern approaches to intermolecular forces.' Dudley Herschbach, Physics Today

'… an intricate and intriguing saga … The book admirably fulfills its stated aim of serving historians of science and also physicists or physical chemists curious about the roots of modern approaches to intermolecular forces.' Dudley Herschbach, Physics Today

'The book strikingly illustrates the crooked ways of progress in science … presents an exhaustive treatment of a ubiquitous natural phenomenon that stubbornly resisted fundamental understanding until well into the twentieth century.' Johanna Levelt Sengers, Isis

'Rowlinson's detailed and densely informative study is destined to be the history of cohesion for many years to come. … it will be of as much interest to historians of the physical sciences as to scientists with an inclination for the history of their field. … an excellently guided tour through the labyrinth of cohesion from Newton to quantum physics.' Ambix

'We rarely contemplate the forces holding everyday objects together. … However, J. S. Rowlinson's fascinating book reveals that the causes of cohesion have occupied many great scientific minds over the past three centuries.' Michael Sutton, Chemistry in Britain

Sir John Rowlinson is Dr Lee's Professor of Chemistry Emeritus in the department of chemistry at the University of Oxford.