Introduction : what is an experiment? : what is beauty?
Ch. 1. How does your garden grow? : Van Helmont's willow tree and the beauty of quantification
Ch. 2. element compounded : Cavendish's water and the beauty of detail
Ch. 3. New light : the Curies' radium and the beauty of patience
Ch. 4. Radiation explained : Rutherford's alpha particles and the beauty of elegance
Ch. 5. elements came in one by one : Seaborgium's chemistry : small is beautiful
Divertissement 1 : the chemical theatre
Ch. 6. Molecules take shape : Pasteur's crystals and the beauty of simplicity
Divertissement 2 : myths and romances
Ch. 7. Life and how to make it : Urey and Miller's prebiotic chemistry and the beauty of imagination
Ch. 8. Not so noble : Bartlett's xenon chemistry and the beauty of simplemindedness
Ch. 9. Nature rebuilt : Woodward, vitamin B[subscript 12] and the beauty of economy
Ch. 10. Plato's molecules : Paquette's dodecahedrane and the beauty of design
Coda : chemical aesthetics.
