Metals play a vital role in the metabolism of plants and animals and, increasingly, in medicine. This book provides an introduction to the metals essential to life and ligands of biological importance. It considers the uptake of metals, their transport and ultimately their storage, illustrated in particular with the story of iron in the body. It also considers Na, K and Ca ion channels and biomineralisation and covers the key roles that metals and their complexes play in living systems, for example in respiration and photosynthesis. The last chapter (delivered online) considers metal toxicity and deficiency as well as the role that metals play in medicine, looking at both diagnostics and therapy, and in the forefront of inorganic research.

This undergraduate teaching text and accompanying Periodic Table DVD, provides an introduction to the transition metals. The first two chapters introduce the reader to the chemistry of the first-row transition elements in different oxidation states, in particular +2 and +3 and their relative stability, largely using interactive activities and video on the DVD. This is followed by a study of coordination chemistry and the stability of complexes. Later chapters look at theories of metal-ligand bonding, in particular the way models can be used to rationalise many of the properties of transition metals and their compounds, such as colour, magnetism and stereochemistry. Starting with the simple, yet powerful crystal field approach, the book finishes with a largely pictorial treatment of molecular orbital theory. The text also includes interactive activities on the accompanying Periodic Table DVD, in-text questions with answers, full colour diagrams and revision exercises on an associated website www.rsc.org/metalsandlife