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Wonderfully intriguing stories and information, along with an easy conversational writing style that had me laughing out loud, even in public.
exquisite. the science was tough, but explained inl plain and comprehensible language. it made me appreciate my high school chemistry classes. oh, to be a scientist as all those elements were making their first appearances!
This book has a bad habit of contradicting itself. At the start of the book the author falsely says "The body will always try to rid itself of poison." Later when talking about lead poising he correctly talks about how lead poisoning works.
It would have benefited from a better science editor.
It would have benefited from a better science editor.
The stories about the periodic table elements were pretty fascinating, but sometimes the science got too deep. Definately worth reading if you can wade through paragraphs of quantum physics.
informative
slow-paced
- Good. This is another book that I finished before discovering there is a new version (2018), but it’s a “young reader’s edition” so it doesn’t count. It really does need a new version because it has several chapters that are out of date.
This book is a collection of short stories related to the discovery/creation of various elements on the periodic table. Most of these stories consist of “scientist screws around, discovers something weird, inadvertently poisons self or loved one, dies.”
Really disappointed this book COMPLETELY ignore the Radium Girls. How is that possible? Not even a single solitary sentence. I was shocked. Google them if you wanna know how cool and good unregulated capitalism is.
The author also had a really weird sentence when trying to describe pathological science: “It’s not pseudoscience, like Freudianism and Marxism, fields that poach on the imprimatur of science yet shun the rigors of the scientific method.” Seems like a really bold assertion to casually throw out there without any follow-up in this fun little book about chemistry. But alright.
Great dad book. Your dad would love this book.
This book is a collection of short stories related to the discovery/creation of various elements on the periodic table. Most of these stories consist of “scientist screws around, discovers something weird, inadvertently poisons self or loved one, dies.”
Really disappointed this book COMPLETELY ignore the Radium Girls. How is that possible? Not even a single solitary sentence. I was shocked. Google them if you wanna know how cool and good unregulated capitalism is.
The author also had a really weird sentence when trying to describe pathological science: “It’s not pseudoscience, like Freudianism and Marxism, fields that poach on the imprimatur of science yet shun the rigors of the scientific method.” Seems like a really bold assertion to casually throw out there without any follow-up in this fun little book about chemistry. But alright.
Great dad book. Your dad would love this book.
I would have finished this sooner, but my sitting time for nonfiction reading was a lot shorter during the past couple months. Really enjoyed the author's writing style, very understandable, and enjoyed the plethora of footnote stories. Best though, were all the interesting things I read that I would never have known/associated with scientists or the periodic table.
I wish I had read this one before I took my college chemistry courses. This book made the concepts come alive in a way I'd never considered before.
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
Very interesting layman's science book. I learned a lot of Fun Facts but wasn't always eager to get back to reading.