Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest For the Elements

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Paul Strathern is a Somerset Maugham prize-winning novelist, and his nonfiction works include The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: The Intersecting Lives of Da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World They Shaped (Bantam), Napoleon in Egypt (Bantam) and Mendeleyev’s Dream: The Quest for the Elements (Thomas Dunne). He lives in England. In Saint Petersburg his name was given to D. I. Mendeleev Institute for Metrology, the National Metrology Institute, [68] dealing with establishing and supporting national and worldwide standards for precise measurements. Next to it there is a monument to him that consists of his sitting statue and a depiction of his periodic table on the wall of the establishment.

Gordin, Michael (22 December 2005). "Supplementary information to accompany Nature news article "Internet encyclopaedias go head to head" ( Nature 438, 900–901; 2005)" (PDF). Blogs.Nature.com. p.178 – via 2004. Strathern is an entertaining guide, too, capably marshaling a colorful cast of thinkers and experimentalists...Beguiling." — New Scientist Strathern does an excellent job revitalizing the drama of chemistry's volatile mix of ideas and substances. His readable romp through the annals of chemistry conveys a remarkable amount of information about science in general." — Sunday Times John W. Moore; Conrad L. Stanitski; Peter C. Jurs (2007). Chemistry: The Molecular Science, Volume 1. Thomson Brooks/Cole. ISBN 978-0495115984 . Retrieved 6 September 2011. Book Genre: Biography, Chemistry, Historical, History, History Of Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Popular Science, Science, UnfinishedOf course this book is a little (!) whiggish and not in any way informed by the newer sociology of science / STS approaches. Chemistry has been a neglected area of science writing and Mendeleyev, the king of chemistry, is a largely forgotten genius. Strathern’s insightful history goes a long way towards correcting this injustice. Rao, C N R; Rao, Indumati (2015). Lives and Times of Great Pioneers in Chemistry: (Lavoisier to Sanger). World Scientific. p.119. ISBN 978-9814689076.

Strathern spends much of his book exploring chemistry’s roots in alchemy, which was one of the earliest forms of science. For centuries, many of the brightest minds—including Isaac Newton—were fascinated by the idea of turning base materials into gold or an elixir that made you immortal. Although the science proved to be faulty, alchemy inspired generations of scientists to think about how materials interact with each other. The atomic weight of an element may sometimes be amended by a knowledge of those of its contiguous elements. Thus the atomic weight of tellurium must lie between 123 and 126, and cannot be 128. (Tellurium's atomic weight is 127.6, and Mendeleev was incorrect in his assumption that atomic weight must increase with position within a period.) Strathern is an entertaining guide, capable of marshalling a colourful cast of thinkers and experimentalists. It’s a pleasure to find a popular book about chemistry.” Fortunately [Mendeleyev's] wife proved an imaginative and resourceful woman. She wisely chose to spend her time on the estate at Tver, except when her husband arrived there from St Petersburg, when she and the children would depart from the Mendeleyev town residence. In this way the marriage managed to survive, without the cohabitation which is the ruin of so many relationships."In fact, the 40% standard was already introduced by the Russian government in 1843, when Mendeleev was nine years old. [66] It is true that Mendeleev in 1892 became head of the Archive of Weights and Measures in Saint Petersburg, and evolved it into a government bureau the following year, but that institution was charged with standardising Russian trade weights and measuring instruments, not setting any production quality standards. Also, Mendeleev's 1865 doctoral dissertation was entitled "A Discourse on the combination of alcohol and water", but it only discussed medical-strength alcohol concentrations over 70%, and he never wrote anything about vodka. [66] [67] Commemoration Portrait of Mendeleev by Ilya Repin, 1885 Seaborg, Glenn T (1994). "The Periodic Table: Tortuous path to man-made elements". Modern Alchemy: Selected Papers of Glenn T Seaborg. World Scientific. p.179. ISBN 978-9814502993 . Retrieved 5 March 2016.