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Like Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything this book manages to balance solid scientific knowledge with accessibility, dodging both wishy-washy vagueries and overly complex science. It has plenty of fascinating stories about the elements and their discoverers and was easy to digest and compelling to read. Highly recommended.
I put off reading this for a long time, thinking that while it looked interesting, it would be hard to get through. It wasn't at all, though. I really didn't ever want to put it down. I really wish I had read this in high school or college, it would have made me such a better student of the sciences.
There's not a big novel-like narrative, which it looks like bothered some readers, but I didn't miss that at all.
There's not a big novel-like narrative, which it looks like bothered some readers, but I didn't miss that at all.
informative
slow-paced
Some of the best writing for a science non-fiction! It was so much of a fun read.
As a history nerd, I fell in love with Kean’s way of telling absorbing historical vignettes about each element, but the stories are also clustered and interwoven into each other to create a delightful telling of the overall history of the periodic table itself. Intermingled along the way are dozens of the famous, infamous and outrageous personalities that helped shape and tabulate the periodical table. War, historical anecdotes, intense rivalries, passionate intrigues, comical asides and chemical facts are sprinkled in for good measure.
As Kean so eloquently states himself, "The periodic table, is finally, an anthropological marvel, a human artifact that reflects all of the wonderful and artful and ugly aspects of human beings and how we interact with the physical world, the history of our species written in a compact and elegant script".
As Kean so eloquently states himself, "The periodic table, is finally, an anthropological marvel, a human artifact that reflects all of the wonderful and artful and ugly aspects of human beings and how we interact with the physical world, the history of our species written in a compact and elegant script".
Enjoyable look at the discovery of the elements, with lots of digressing into anecdotes about the people involved, and tidbits about many of the elements, from history or mythology as often as from chemistry or physics.
The style is very down to Earth, conversational, even, and that works well. The grouping of the elements seemed nonintuitive to me, which might limit its use as a reference (unless the book format has a good index? I listened to the audioversion, so I'm not sure), but worked well as a story-telling device.
Comment on the audio-version: I really enjoyed Sean Runnette's narration of this. He's got a solid, folksy voice that works well with Kean's conversational style. He also has a Sean Connery style tendency to turn "ss" into "sh" now and then, which made me smile.
ETA: At the time this book was published (2009), the kilogram had not been redefined. That changed this year in May: Kilogram Redefinition on Wikipedia
Probably a few other things are out of date as well, but as it's mostly focused on historical data, that won't detract much from the work.
The style is very down to Earth, conversational, even, and that works well. The grouping of the elements seemed nonintuitive to me, which might limit its use as a reference (unless the book format has a good index? I listened to the audioversion, so I'm not sure), but worked well as a story-telling device.
Comment on the audio-version: I really enjoyed Sean Runnette's narration of this. He's got a solid, folksy voice that works well with Kean's conversational style. He also has a Sean Connery style tendency to turn "ss" into "sh" now and then, which made me smile.
ETA: At the time this book was published (2009), the kilogram had not been redefined. That changed this year in May: Kilogram Redefinition on Wikipedia
Probably a few other things are out of date as well, but as it's mostly focused on historical data, that won't detract much from the work.
An entertaining look at the periodic table and the discovery of the elements that make it up. A bit over my head at times, but an enjoyable diversion from the type of book I normally read.
I ended up enjoying this book. It is a lot like taking a class from one of those professors who loves their subject, but never prepares coherent lectures, just comes in and spends the entire time digressing and sharing every fact or anecdote they know about whatever crosses their mind. Early in the book, I realized that there wasn't going to be a lot of structure to the book, but I found many of the stories and digressions interesting. I don't think I learned much about chemistry, by far my least favorite science subject back in school, but the history around those who were involved with the periodic table and it's elements was covered.
i really did not like this book. i feel like i may have enjoyed it if i didn’t have to read it for school. the quizzes we took were very difficult which took the little joy i might have gotten for this book and threw it away. if you love science i see why you would really enjoy this book, but for me i just really didn’t like it
While the book started out slow, packed with an information overload, the course of the book changed quickly and turned into riviting storytelling.
I defintely enjoyed this book, and it is a must re-read. It had me on my toes wanting more. From universal solvent jokes, to gallium spoons, to wars fought, to vital medical discoveries. It had me laughing out loud from russian myths about a God getting frostbite and dropping all minerals, as well as stories about wanting to call an element Bm as "it was a 'stinker' to discover".
This book is not just for people that understand the science behind it, but also for individuals that have never read a word of science before. Sam Kean is not a textbook writer, he is an intriguing storyteller.
I defintely enjoyed this book, and it is a must re-read. It had me on my toes wanting more. From universal solvent jokes, to gallium spoons, to wars fought, to vital medical discoveries. It had me laughing out loud from russian myths about a God getting frostbite and dropping all minerals, as well as stories about wanting to call an element Bm as "it was a 'stinker' to discover".
This book is not just for people that understand the science behind it, but also for individuals that have never read a word of science before. Sam Kean is not a textbook writer, he is an intriguing storyteller.