A science populist with a sense of humor, Theodore Gray is well served by this boxed set, which includes The Elements—his visually captivating look at the Periodic Table—and Molecules, an accessible guide to how these endlessly recombining microscopic building blocks of matter become soap, oil, rope, painkiller, and asbestos. Also included here, Reactions builds upon the earlier books as Gray creatively explains the concepts that characterize a chemical reaction, including energy, entropy, and time.