Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-05-10 08:00:35 Boxid IA40110407 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Platinum had a low value and was seen as less valuable when compared to silver. Chabaneau was bought to Madrid to carry out Science writing at its best ... fascinating and beautiful ... if only chemistry had been like this at school ... to meander through the periodic table with him ... is like going round a zoo with Gerald Durrell ... a rich compilation of delicious tales, but it offers greater rewards, too Matt Ridley This book combines non-technical popular science writing with history and culture to examine some of the elements that make up the periodic table. Seven metals have been known since ancient times: gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron, and mercury, since they can be found either in their pure forms or in compounds that were easily extracted by early tools. The Greek philosopher Empedocles, around 330 BCE, proposed the idea that all matter was made up of tiny, indivisible particles, but his was only one of a number of theories, and it was Plato’s division of all things into air, earth, fire, and water which caught on and was the dominant position for almost two thousand years. Eventually, during the golden age of alchemy, additional elements were discovered, such as antimony, zinc, bismuth, and antimony, but it took centuries before they were recognized as true elements. A flashily brainy book, crammed with literary references and held together by a personal quest to collect as many elements as possible"

Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements - Goodreads Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements - Goodreads

If you buy a standard ‘30C’ dose of any homepathic treatment, it means the active ingredient has been diluted thirty times, by a factor of 100. That might not sound like too much, until you realise that your chance of getting even one molecule of the original substance in your pill is one in a billion billion billion billion. In his influential book Bad Science, Skeptic superstar Dr Ben Goldacre explained that you would have to drink a sphere of water that stretches from the earth to the sun just to get one solitary, pointless molecule of it. (p. 129) The elements do not belong in a laboratory; they are the property of us all. Periodic Tales is a record of the journey with the elements that I never encouraged to take when I was a chemist,” writes Aldersey-Williams in the introduction. With this start, the author presents an unorthodox and invigorating look at the elements in our cultural history and in many areas of everyday life. Aldersey-Williams takes the reader on a personal and emotional journey through the world of several elements along with their discoverers and discovery location. Who knew, for example, that the British general Wellington was known as the “Iron Duke” not for his prowess in battle but because he had installed iron shutters on the windows of his London home as protection against the mob? And how many would-be murderers, intent on using the element thallium to poison their victims, have been foiled by Agatha Christie’s The Pale Horse, where death by ingesting that metal is integral to the plot?

Henry VIII came to be known as Old Coppernose because he introduced so much copper into the silver coin that the king's nose and other raised parts on the coin would turn red as they wore down. The American patriot Paul Revere, achieved fame with his copper-bottomed cooking pots and pans. Ductility is copper's most useful property. Nevertheless, with 2011 being the International Year of Chemistry, it should not be surprising that there were several books published on that iconic representation of chemistry - the periodic table.

Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements - Goodreads

Why did a little lithium (Li, 3) help cure poet Robert Lowell of his madness? And how did gallium (Ga, 31) become the go-to element for laboratory pranksters? The Disappearing Spoon has the answers, fusing science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, discovery and alchemy, from the big bang through to the end of time. Joseph Priestley: A man of intellectual curiosity who was inspired by Benjamin Franklin to take up experimental science. He later turned his attention to the constant bubbling of the 'fixed air' which emanated from the beer mash next door. The final void in the table was filled, in 1939, with francium, the last naturally occurring element to be uncovered. Physicists then started bombarding existing elements with high-energy particles to create synthetic ones. These, as Kean points out, are the first new elements to appear on Earth since the creation of the solar system billions of years ago and have found widespread use, ranging from plutonium, in nuclear bombs, to americium, which is employed in domestic smoke alarms.After many years away from taking multiple chemistry classes in high school, college and dental school, I found this book an enjoyable return to being a student again. The author takes you through an historical journey of the discovery of the natural and man made chemical elements. Many details of the elements discovery, uses, and other trivia are revealed in this book.The author's journey through Mendeleev's periodic table gave me a new appreciation of Mendeleev's organizational genius of grouping related elements and creating the table before most of the elements had been discovered . The new man made elements continue to enlarge the periodic table but still fit into the original table's format. is speculated to have originated from the meteorites instead of a volcanic eruption. Richard Ford discovered that by varying the amount of coal or coke added to the ore, one could produce iron which was brittle or tough. Both books romp about the periodic table to such an extent that the reader can lose the train of thought. Both books are, however, varied and interesting throughout, giving the reader new insights and asides on the elements. surface when it is exposed to the air. Marine phosphorescence occurs when enzymes trigger chemical reactions in bioluminescent bacteria but does not involve phosphorous directly.

Periodic Tales - Penguin Books UK

Furthermore, the book is also primarily written for a Western audience, and the history of science that is told is almost entirely European/American centered. Again, due to the scope of the project, this is understandable. Yet, there’s not much new in terms of content. Aside from the introduction of the cultural perspective of the elements (which is not explored with any theoretical or critical depth), this book is not breaking any new ground. Rather, it is a textbook work of popular science, which retells history and scientific discoveries in an accessible and engaging way. Below are a selection of wider reading and ideas for you to advance your chemistry knowledge before embarking on A level.Cleopatra- as reported by Pliny- thought of impressing Marcus Antonius by announcing that she would throw the most expensive banquet ever given. The food was rich enough but not worth what was declared and Antonius' protests were met by Cleopatra removing her pearl earrings- the largest ever known- and dissolving them in vinegar. She then drank this liquor and won the wager. These omissions made many scientists suspicious until, in 1875, they isolated gallium, whose atomic weight and chemistry had been predicted by Mendeleev. The great Russian was vindicated while chemists' lives were enriched by a substance of beguiling behaviour, as is suggested by the title of Kean's book. Gallium looks like aluminium but melts at a mere 29C. Make a spoon of it, give it to guests to stir their tea and watch it melt and form a metallic puddle at the bottom of their cups. Laugh? They have to mop it up. Full of good stories and he knows how to tell them well ... an agreeable jumble of anecdote, reflection and information" Also, some of the names I saw engraved on the chemistry building in college now have new meaning and were discussed in the book. One name for example was Berzelius who helped chemistry by determining the method to calculate atomic weights and developed the modern chemical symbols for the elements used in chemical equations. Having an American mother and an English father makes me, as it says on jars of honey, ‘the produce of more than one country’, and has left me with a curiosity about matters of national identity. Living in the United States gave me the opportunity to write my first book, using my semi-detachment from the culture to identify a renaissance in contemporary American design. Its success led to a larger-scale examination of design and national cultures as well as a number other design books and a five-year stint as design critic of the New Statesman.