Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements

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Tā kā šāda tipa grāmatas es jau pāris esmu izlasījis, man grāmata lielāko devumu sniedza mākslas un kultūras vēstures kontekstā. Sākot ar to, ka alva reiz bija tāds pats stratēģiskais materiāls kā mūsdienās urāns. Ne visur zelts ir bijis vērtē, un reiz alumīnijs tika uzskatīts par jauno zeltu. Un tas ir tīri vai brīnums, ka cilvēkam indīgākie elementi rada tik spilgtas krāsas. Cinka un svina salīdzinājums namu apjumšanā un no kāda materiāla vislabāk izgatavot skulptūras. Daļu no stāstiem es jau biju dzirdējis – skābeklis un flogistons, Kirī pāris un viņu vājību pēc vakariņām vērot radioaktīvo elementu spīdumu, Mendeļejevs un viņa periodisko elementu tabula, Napoleons un arsēna krāsas tapetes , gallija karotes, tie ir tikai daži. Zinc is the only element which was not discovered by Western Science. A 13th-century Indian text describes how the metal could be obtained by heating calamine, a zinc oxide, with organic matter.

Periodic Tales - Penguin Books UK

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 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. 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. I was born in London in 1959, the same year C.P. Snow gave his infamous ‘two cultures’ lecture about the apparently eternal divide in Britain between the arts and sciences. Perhaps this is where it all begins. Forced to choose one or the other at school and university, I chose the latter, gaining an MA in natural sciences from Cambridge. So what of the book then - well you have several layers to this book. The first is that of the story of him deciding to create his own collection of elements from periodic table, now some are incredibly easy to source others are near on impossible.The book is organized by rough, anthropological categories. Rather than giving a chronological retelling of the elements (either historically or by atomic number), Aldersey-Williams organizes them by their cultural significance. For example, in the first section, titled “Power,” Aldersey-Williams focuses on elements that have been utilized to amass wealth (such as gold, silver, etc) and exert control over other people (iron, carbon, plutonium). He continues organizing the elements by cultural significance, with subsequent sections titled, “Fire,” “Craft,” “Beauty,” and “Earth.” By reclassifying the elements in this way, Aldersey-Williams hopes to shift our perspective on the elements, seeing them as imbued with cultural significance as a result of their physical properties. As such, Aldersey-Williams wants us to see that the elements are not just the property of chemistry labs; rather, “they are the property of us all” (12). 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).

Periodic Tales - Penguin Books UK Periodic Tales - Penguin Books UK

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 N=81) е описано в книгата на Агата Кристи "Сивият кон", чиято популярност води до разкриване на истински случаи на отравяне - някои поради рискови условия на труд, но други като опит за убийство. 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.To quote the author: "My aim in this boo A love letter to the chemical elements. Aldersey-Williams is full of good stories, and he knows how to tell them well' Sunday Telegraph Mr Aldersey-Williams’ writes for an adult, or interested teenager, audience, whereas I was reading Nechaev whilst still in primary (age 6-11) education. ‘Periodic Tales’ is wider, deeper, and longer; dipping into literature, mining, cookery, war, oceanography, classical history, Christianity, art, materials science, architecture …. That is by no means a comprehensive list. Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium (Cd, 48)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why did tellurium (Te, 52) lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history? 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.