Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest For the Elements

Product Information

If this labor makes your own life more livable in any way, please consider aiding its sustenance with a one-time or loyal donation. Despite this work's many merits, Strathern's authorial alchemy hasn't managed to turn his base elements into gold. And it was philosophy because it used reason to reach these conclusions: there was no appeal to the gods or mysterious metaphysical forces. Chemistry has been a neglected area of science writing and Mendeleyev, the king of chemistry, is a largely forgotten genius.

A very accessible, non-fiction telling of the epic journey and transmutation of the collective human intellect through the ages. One of Bill Gates' Top Five Book Recommendations* The wondrous and illuminating story of humankind's quest to discover the fundamentals of chemistry, culminating in Mendeleyev's dream of the Periodic Table. The title of this book is misleading, if from it you assume the book is primarily about Mendeleyev - far from it.Framing this history is the life story of the nineteenth-century Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleyev, who fell asleep at his desk and awoke after conceiving the periodic table in a dream-the template upon which modern chemistry is founded and the formulation of which marked chemistry's coming of age as a science. Complement Mendeleyev’s Dream with Margaret Mead’s existentially revelatory dream about the meaning of life and John Steinbeck’s prophetic dream about how the commercial media are killing creative culture, then revisit the science of what the brain actually does while we sleep. Instead, the vast majority of the book is a history of what was to become chemistry, from the ancient Egyptians concerned with mummification up until the discovery of the Periodic Table.

The wondrous and illuminating story of humankind’s quest to discover the fundamentals of chemistry, culminating in Mendeleyev’s dream of the Periodic Table.It is also extremely well matched to the fascinating story adduced in this absorbing and enlightening book.

The argument was conducted entirely within the realms of this world, from which evidence could be gathered to prove or disprove its conclusions. From ancient philosophy, through medieval alchemy to the splitting of the atom, this is the true story of the birth of chemistry and the role of one man's dream.I loved learning about the origins of alchemy and how it transcended into chemistry, and I also really enjoyed reading about the discovery of all the different elements. Boyles Sceptial Chemist, with his concept of elements as particles, was one of the first coherent refutations of the Aristotelian theory and its chokehold on progress.