Armstrong J. General, Organic, and Biochemistry: An Applied Approach

Brooks/Cole, 2012. - 842 p. - Focusing on key topics important in allied health and nursing careers, this engaging book is ideal for readers who have had no prior exposure to chemistry. Emphasizing problem-solving techniques, the book takes the most direct path to biomolecules and metabolic processes, provides a wealth of worked examples to help readers understand key chemical concepts, includes novel and relevant "Health Notes" in the margins, and weaves biological and medical applications throughout.
This textbook grew out of my experiences teaching a one-semester survey of chemistry for nursing majors at City College of San Francisco. At that time, virtually all of the available textbooks for the GOB course covered far too much material for a single term, and all available books enforced a rigid separation between general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry topics. In addition, the coverage of many of the core concepts in general chemistry, including the metric system, ionic compound formation, chemical equations, and moles was so terse as to be of little help to the beginning student. It was clear to me that there was a need for a textbook that offered a more integrated approach to health-related chemistry and that could be used in a single-term course with no chemistry prerequisite. With this in mind, my primary goals in writing this textbook were:
■ to pitch the text at a level that can be read and understood by students who had no prior exposure to chemistry, but that has sufficient rigor for a collegelevel course.
■ to describe and illustrate the fundamental concepts of chemistry in detail (including worked examples), never sacrificing pedagogy in the interest of space.
■ to focus on the needs and interests of allied-health majors, eliminating topics that are of limited relevance to these students.
■ to take the most direct path to biomolecules and metabolic processes.
■ to minimize the number of asides (boxed essays, marginal notes, and graphics) that were not connected to health fields.Measurements in Science And Medicine
Atoms, Elements, and Compounds.
Chemical Bonds.
Energy and the Physical Behavior of Chemical Substances.
Solutions and Concentration.
Chemical Reactions.
Acids and Bases.
Hydrocarbons - an Introduction to Organic Molecules.
Hydration, Dehydration and Alcohols.
Carbonyl Compounds and Redox Reactions.
Organic Acids and Bases
Building Large Molecules - Condensation and Hydrolysis Reactions.
Proteins.
Carbohydrates and Lipids.
Metabolism - the Chemical Web of Life.
Nuclear Chemistry.
Nucleic Acids, Protein Synthesis, and Heredity
Appendix: Essential Mathematics for Chemistry.
Appendix: The Quantitative Behavior of Gases.