Metals and Chemical Change

Metals play a vital role in the metabolism of plants and animals and, increasingly, in medicine. The Open University has developed an undergraduate course - Metals and Life, with two books, Metals and Life and Concepts in Transition Metal Chemistry used as the main teaching material. The books and the course cover how organisms acquire metals, their transport and storage, illustrated by such diverse examples as iron in the human body, and structures such as shells and teeth. 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 section (delivered online) considers metal toxicity and deficiency and the role that metals play in medicine, looking at both diagnostics and therapy and the forefront of inorganic research.Johnson, D. A. is the author of 'Metals and Chemical Change' with ISBN 9780854046652 and ISBN 0854046658.