The Elements: A Visual History of Their Discovery

Ball, Philip

ISBN 10: 022677595X / ISBN 13: 9780226775951

Published by University of Chicago Press, 2021

Hardcover Book. Seller Inventory # LACV.022677595X.G

Synopsis:

From water, air, and fire to tennessine and oganesson, celebrated science writer Philip Ball leads us through the full sweep of the field of chemistry in this exquisitely illustrated history of the elements.

The Elements is a stunning visual journey through the discovery of the chemical building blocks of our universe. By piecing together the history of the periodic table, Ball explores not only how we have come to understand what everything is made of, but also how chemistry developed into a modern science. Ball groups the elements into chronological eras of discovery, covering seven millennia from the first known to the last named. As he moves from prehistory and classical antiquity to the age of atomic bombs and particle accelerators, Ball highlights images and stories from around the world and sheds needed light on those who struggled for their ideas to gain inclusion. By also featuring some elements that aren't true elements but were long thought to be--from the foundational prote hyle and heavenly aetherof the ancient Greeks to more recent false elements like phlogiston and caloric--The Elements boldly tells the full history of the central science of chemistry.

About the Author: Philip Ball is a freelance writer and broadcaster, and was an editor at Nature for more than twenty years. He writes regularly in the scientific and popular media and has written many books on the interactions of the sciences, the arts, and wider culture, including H2O: A Biography of Water and The Music Instinct. His book Critical Mass won the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books. Ball is also the 2022 recipient of the Royal Society's Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal for contributions to the history, philosophy, or social roles of science. He trained as a chemist at the University of Oxford and as a physicist at the University of Bristol, and he was an editor at Nature for more than twenty years. He lives in London.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Elements: A Visual History of Their ...
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication Date: 2021
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: good