The green flame

the long version

The Greem Flame is a memoir by an industrial chemist about the secret project to develop jet fuels and rocket propellants from Boron chemicals. Most are flammable, toxic, violently-explosive and physically-dangerous: and none more so than pentaborane, which takes up half the book. If this sounds dull, remember: it's a book about working with a chemical that erupts in violent combustion with air, water, grease, fire-retardants, and laboratory chemists. Some of the book will be dull, even to chemistry geeks; but there is plenty of excitement.