In the spirit of A Short History of Nearly Everything comes Periodic Tales. Award-winning science writer Hugh Andersey-Williams offers readers a captivating look at the elements—and the amazing, little-known stories behind their discoveries. Periodic Tales is an energetic and wide-ranging book of innovations and innovators, of superstition and science and the myriad ways the chemical elements are … ways the chemical elements are woven into our culture, history, and language. It will delight readers of Genome, Einstein’s Dreams, Longitude, and The Age of Wonder.
more
Being a High School Chemistry Teacher, I found the detailed information on the elements very entertaining as well as something to pass along to my students.
Thought it might be a bit dry given the subject matter, but it wasn’t. A nice easy read with lots of information and interesting characters .
Fascinating and superbly researched account of the elements that make up our world. A rich seam of history, science, culture and human endeavor.
Surprisingly interesting. I keep trying to move on but am drawn back.
Unlike the dry, textbook approach of many authors, this book brings the periodic table to life with interesting historical and incidental information that makes you want to keep reading!
Interesting history and how things work and get worked into societies use.
I’m a high school science teacher and I will share some of the stories of discoveries from this book with my students next year. The author talked about some of the ores as well as some historical information about how scientists set up their experiments to discover new elements. This book is not chronological or categorized by elements and so to …
As a former chemistry teacher, I would encourage anyone to read this book. The approach is different than a straight forward listing of the elements and their properties, uses et cetera. Sciences don’t exist separate from the rest of the world. The elements have played an important part of history, religion and politics.
This book tells stories about the discovery of the elements that make up the periodic table. It is a book about history, the evolution of scientific thought and the challenges of scientific inquiry. It is easy to read and some of its chapters are page-turners as they detail how scientists solved the mysteries they were confronted with. It makes …
The book is sometimes dense and a bit wordy, but it is interesting reading for anyone interested in the history of science.
I lo
Periodic Tales is an example of what happens when I spend too much time in aiports… Essentially a book of short stories about various of the elements, their histories (from ancient times and alchemists to the Manhattan Project) and the ways humans have interacted with them through time (from the Biblical references to brimstone, aka sulphur, to …
An interesting, detailed look into how the periodic table came into being and the remarkable people who advanced chemistry throughout history.
A very readable science book.
Had to ploughing my way through to the end
Interesting, lots of back-story info.
Educational
A fun and easy read about the elements, their history and uses, then and now.
What MIGHT have been an enjoyable journey of historical anecdotes along history’s development, solidification and codification of the Periodic Table as we know it today — turns out to be as bereft of meat as the elderly old lady demanding, “WHERE’S THE BEEF!” Not only was the material disjointed but, try as one might the audio simply put me to …
The author starts out with lots of information about the elements. By the end
of the book he appears to have run out of information pertaining to the
elements, and just fills in with useless drivel.