Global warming and, even more recently, the COVID pandemic have brought into public focus our dependence on science and the lens with which it considers the world. Science is providing opportunities for new ways of thinking and has always opened new avenues for creative thought and advances.

This book examines and summarises the developments and changes in approaches to organic and natural product chemistry as seen through the published works of the author and seeks to place them in a philosophical and societal context. Demonstrating and explaining how scientists and, more particularly, chemists arrive at a world view, it will show how this is predicated not just by scientific advances but also by societal influences. The author uses personal experience to detail progress through science. Techniques used in such investigations are alluded to but not described in detail since the interested reader can access the full published papers if required.

Interesting both to the general, scientifically literate reader and to the specialist wanting information on natural product chemistry, the book does not create a rulebook for carrying out natural product chemistry but rather examines the processes that lie beneath the development of natural product chemistry and how this enables chemists to examine and interpret the world. Students of chemistry (whatever their age or stage of career) may also be interested in reading how peer reviewed and published material relates to the wider society view.