Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements

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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. Random relationship tip here: it’s always good to date intelligent people, and even better when you take the opportunity to learn things from them you otherwise wouldn’t have known. That way, if/when things end, you can say you learned a great deal from your experience in more ways than one, lol.

Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements

Matthias Driess concludes that this book is a joy to read because it encourages the curiosity, marvel, and communication of many discoveries, inventions, and lessons from the world of materials. The book can thus be wholeheartedly recommended to every scientist, cultural studies, interested laypersons, and in particular students of all disciplines. 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. One difference from Kean's book is that Aldersey-Williams' book is more autobiographical and outlines a number of personal household experiments which he carries out to illustrate the properties of the elements under discussion - such as pouring molten lead into water to produce weird shapes from which one's fortune can be told and extracting phosphorus from one's own urine. Platinum had a low value and was seen as less valuable when compared to silver. Chabaneau was bought to Madrid to carry out

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The periodic table of the elements has been an icon in chemistry since 1869. Anyone who is looking for striking tales and interpretations of the cultural significance of the elements would be enthusiastic about Periodic Tales and would find it hard to put down. Iron has long thought to have male warlike properties. The metallic taste of blood was explained when Vincenzo Menghini roasted the blood of several mammals and poked the residue with a magnetic knife and found iron particles. Mars is covered with iron which The red poppy which we commemorate the loss of life in World War I is a symbol of survival- the flower grew from the soil of the battlefields which were fertilized with the blood of the slain. However, chlorine- which was used in 1915 would both choke lungs and bleach the flowers white. Chlorine is the most brutal weapon as it rips through the blood vessels that line the lung and the victim eventually drowns in a fluid produced as the body attempts to repair the damage. Haber's wife, Clara, commited suicide using her husband's revolver whereas his son by his second marriage, Lutz, was haunted by his father's history and wrote the book The Poisonous Cloud. Haber was forced to leave Germany with his family when his Berlin research insitute was shut down by the Nazis. The first of four chapters, “Power”, consists of short, informative episodes regarding the eminent roles of metals such as gold, platinum, palladium, iron, uranium, plutonium, and mercury. These, for example, stand for the manifestation of empires such as the Spanish colonial empire in the 15th century through gold and platinum, the development of technological advantage as in the case of the complex story of iron, and the race to develop the atomic bomb with the “Manhattan Project”.

Chemistry: A cultural history of the elements | Nature Chemistry: A cultural history of the elements | Nature

Mendeleev's critics were silenced in 1875 when Paul-Emile Lecoq announced that he had discovered a new aluminium-like element which he had named gallium. Its atomic weight was exactly equal to that which Mendeleev had assigned in his table. Lecoq reported a density which was lower than that predicted by Mendeleev but Mendeleev told him to obtain a pure sample. When Lecoq followed these instructions, the density which he arrived at was exactly the one predicted. The discovery of elements (the famous table is longer than it was when I took chemistry), the scientists and properties and uses are discussed. You’ll read some great stories. There was a time when arts and sciences were closer. Alchemy became just too fanciful for science. When the Enlightenment era came along leading scientists, artists and poets could all sit down and appreciate each other’s work. Difficult to imagine today. Napolean's death is attributed to arsenic (also known as 'Inheritance Powder'). The green colour of the wallpaper would contain large quantities of the metal which caused his body to have high levels of arsenic. Here you'll meet iron that rains from the heavens. You'll learn how lead can tell your future while zinc may one day line your coffin. You'll discover what connects the bones in your body with the Whitehouse in Washington, the glow of a streetlamp with the salt on your dinner table. When Pierre-Louis Dulong first made the highly explosive liquid nitrogen trichloride, it cost him and eye and three fingers. WhenLike the elements that Aldersey-Williams collected in his youth, this book is just that: a fun and accessible collection of stories about the periodic table and the elements that comprise it. I largely enjoyed reading Periodic Tales, but the disjointed nature of the content made it a bit difficult to read in large chunks, and I found my motivation to finish it dwindling as time progressed (although I’m entirely glad I did finish it since Aldersey-Williams’s excursions to the mines of Germany and Sweden offered some interesting avenues for my research and writing). But you also have historical stories of the elements. However rather than just dry stories of their discovery and who made them there are also side stories about how they were used or even how they became famous and had their 15minutes of fame (from St Pauls cathedral to Napoleons death). Everything in the universe is made of them, including you. Like you, the elements have personalities, attitudes, talents, shortcomings, stories rich with meaning.