Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements

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This VERY fast talking American presenter will talk you through an entire topic in about 15 minutes.

Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey-Williams - Eyrie Review: Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey-Williams - Eyrie

The book’s central idea is to show how these meanings are often just as much a reflection of ourselves as they are about the physical properties of the elements themselves. Ultimately, the story of the history of the elements is a story of scientists, like Marie Curie, discovering new elements, updating Mendeleev's period table to the periodic table we know today, experimenting with elements to learn new things, and manipulating elements for our personal gains, like using arsenic either for medication or assassination. The discovery of elements (the famous table is longer than it was when I took chemistry), the scientists and properties and uses are discussed.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?

Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements eBook Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements eBook

It is provocative stuff, and both books do justice to their topic, though both struggle to forge a proper narrative from all these disjointed tales of elemental discovery. For instance, iron for strength, Arsenic as an adjective for anything poisonous, platinum for anything rare and precious (think platinum jubilee, platinum membership etc.

Periodic Tales’ is wider, deeper, and longer; dipping into literature, mining, cookery, war, oceanography, classical history, Christianity, art, materials science, architecture …. Alla fine, questo testo è un gran bel viaggio, anche se occasionalmente l'autore è un po' troppo immodesto nel presumere di avere la chiave per la conoscenza finale della vita: scivoloni su aneddoti, leggerezze sulle armi e il modo con cui sono sviluppate, leggerezze sulla spiritualità (bollare la cabala come scempiaggine mi pare un po' eccessivo).

Periodic Tales - Hugh Aldersey-Williams

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. The Telegraph described the book as "a 400-page love letter to the chemical elements", and "an agreeable jumble of anecdote, reflection and information, rather than a source of understanding". Along the way, we'll swim with radioactive pigs, witness the most important chemical reactions humans have discovered, and join the crowd at the Moulin Rouge for some of the crudest performance art of all time. Some of the connections to themes such as “power” and “beauty” are a bit tenuous at times, lending to a rather haphazard structure. 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.The authors of these two books make much of this story in their peregrinations through the periodic table while also waxing lyrical about the Nobel prize's constituent metal.

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

He speaks about the history of the elements and his past related to the them, interesting stories about elements that we use today like gold, silver, and mercury, which was used in movies for a certain special effect. All in all a very enjoyable book my only complaint was that the author's storytelling is hit and miss at best. the book is supposed to be about, not the chemistry of the elements, but their cultural significance, whatever that is, which is very ambitious of course and then. Both books are, however, varied and interesting throughout, giving the reader new insights and asides on the elements. Overall, this shift toward a cultural perspective of the elements is the novel kernel of Aldersey-Williams’s work, as he uses the Periodic Table as a map on his journey to understand the acquired cultural meanings behind the elements.he is known for his bestselling book, Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc, which explains all the elements found in the periodic table and their origins. Along the way, you’ll find that their stories are our stories, and their lives are inextricable from our own. 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.