This new EIBC Book provides coverage of both the fundamentals and recent advances in the science and technology of the lightest metals (lithium, beryllium, sodium, magnesium, aluminium, potassium, calcium). The growing uses of these seven elements are enmeshing them ever more firmly into critical areas of 21st century technology, including energy storage, catalysis, and various applications of nanoscience. Opening chapters of the book describe major physical and chemical properties of the metals, their occurrence and issues of long-term availability. Other chapters cover a broad range of chemical features, including low oxidation state chemistry, organometallics, metal-centered NMR spectroscopy, and cation- interactions. A major set of chapters describes current and emerging applications of the metals, including lithium-ion battery technology, hydrogen storage chemistry, superconductor materials, transparent ceramics, nano-enhanced catalysis, and research into photosynthesis and photoelectrochemical cells.