It was often quite interesting. I particularly enjoyed the sections on phosphorus in pyrotechnics and fluorine in so much of the world’s drinking water (especially the author’s jab at America’s broken health care system: ”Well over half of Americans drink fluoridated water today - as near to free universal health care as that country comes, perhaps.” Sad but true).

Periodic tales : Hugh Aldersey-Williams : Free Download Periodic tales : Hugh Aldersey-Williams : Free Download

Ja lasītājs neko no šī temata iepriekš nebūs daudz lasījis, tad šī grāmata viņam būs īsta zināšanu krātuve. Fakti un notikumi te tiek pasniegti interesantā un saistošā veidā. Te nav sausas zinātniskas valodas ar metālu kušanas temperatūrām un elektronu uzskaiti ārējās elektronu čaulās. Te viss tiek piesaistīts sadzīvei. Kas interesanti, daļu no metāliem, kuru nosaukumi šķiet eksotiski, patiesībā ikdienā mums ir visapkārt. Lasot šo grāmatu patiešām ir jāuzmanās, lai nekļūtu par elementu kolekcionāru. Tie ir cilvēki, kas cenšas iegūt savā īpašumā visus iespējamos elementus. Man šāda doma galvā iešaujas laiku pa laikam, bet pagaidām esmu tam turējies pretī. Each chapter and even each sub-section tells a fun and fascinating tale along the way while we watch the author try (and sometimes fail) to add another element to his collection. Periodic Tales’ adopts Nechaev’s central thesis; to describe the sheer human and technological excitement of the discovery of the chemical elements. Unsurprisingly, there is considerably more to say in 2011 than in 1942; and not only about the fleeting fascinating existences of the man-made transuranic elements; where physicists have gracelessly elbowed the chemists out of the party. Humans are meaning-making beings, attaching significance and projecting our fears and desires onto the natural world. In his 2011 book, Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc, British author and journalist Hugh Aldersey-Williams examines how we’ve given meaning to the elements. Through a wide-ranging collection of historical examples, Aldersey-Williams examines how the elements on the periodic table don’t simply stay on a chart but are rather woven into the fabric of our culture, popping up in artists’ studios, streetlamps, cosmetics, fireworks, and more. Along the way, in addition to learning the history and science of the elements that make up the periodic table, Aldersey-Williams also examines how we’ve assigned specific cultural significance to these elements and integrated them into our everyday lives.

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The main message of the book is that we are one with the elements, literally (as in the makeup of objects we hold dear) as well as figuratively (as in

Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements (PDF) Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements (PDF)

An online version of this textbook is available at www.kerboodle.com where you can log in with your own details. Elemental phosphorous glows in the dark- the light coming from the combustion of short-lived oxides which are created at its Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2013-11-08 17:46:34.470589 Bookplateleaf 0004 Boxid IA1137509 Boxid_2 CH120123 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Containerid S0022 Donor and his calculations boiled down to 6 mg per tonne of seawater. At this level, the total reserve of gold in the world's oceans

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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 book has been to show that the elements are all around us, both in the material sense that they are in the objects we treasure and under our kitchen sinks, but also around us more powerfully in a figurative sense, in our art and literature and language, in our history and geography, and that the character of these parallel lives arises ultimately from each element's universal and unvarying properties."

Periodic Tales - Penguin Books UK

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. 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?Wer schon einmal in seinem Leben Chemieunterricht hatte, kennt garantiert die große Tafel mit dem Periodensystem der Elemente, die wohl in jedem Chemiesaal an der Wand hängt, und während Sauerstoff, Eisen oder Gold jedermann ein Begriff sind, hat man sich in der einen oder anderen öden Unterrichtsstunde sicher schon mal gefragt, was genau eigentlich Ytterbium, Cadmium oder Neodym sein soll oder woher Antimon und Cer ihre merkwürdigen Namen haben.

Periodic Tales | Financial Times Periodic Tales | Financial Times

Autors pastāsta arī dažus savus eksperimentus, uz kuriem viņu ir pamudinājusi grāmatas sarakstīšana. Tad nu varam uzzināt kā no urīna iegūt fosforu vai no asinīm dzelzi. 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.Although the book is roughly organized by cultural categories, the book still seems a little disconnected throughout. Some of the connections to themes such as “power” and “beauty” are a bit tenuous at times, lending to a rather haphazard structure. Since Aldersey-Williams forgoes organizing the book chronologically, the stories jump around greatly in time and location, making any kind of narrative thread pretty difficult to untangle. The book reads like a series of short stories/nifty trivia facts than a cohesive whole. It’s a book of little anecdotes rather than a coherent narrative, and some are well-rounded and focused while others meander and then suddenly end with little warning. 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 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”. Grob thematisch gegliedert widmet Aldersey-Williams seinen Elementen oder manchmal auch zusammengehörigen Elementegruppen ein eigenes Kapitel und zeigt, dass Chemie in alle Lebensbereiche hineinspielt und keinesfalls nur aus öden Formeln und hin und wieder mal einem Experiment mit Knalleffekt besteht. Er berichtet zudem von seiner eigenen Leidenschaft für das Fach und seinem Versuch, sich ein eigenes Periodensystem mit Proben aller existierenden Elemente zusammenzubauen (Spoiler: es ist ihm nicht gänzlich gelungen).