Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest for the Elements Twarda oprawa – Ilustrowany
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**One of Bill Gates' Top Five Book Recommendations**
In 1869 Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleyev was puzzling over a way to bring order to the fledgling science of chemistry. Wearied by the effort, he fell asleep at his desk. What he dreamed would fundamentally change the way we see the world.
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. 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.
In this elegant, erudite, and entertaining book, Paul Strathern unravels the quixotic history of chemistry through the quest for the elements.
- Długość wersji drukowanej320 str.
- JęzykAngielski
- WydawcaPegasus Books
- Wymiary15.24 x 3.05 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-101643130692
- ISBN-13978-1643130699
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Recenzja
"Despite its title, this is not a biography of Dmitri Mendeleyev. Rather, it is a lay reader's history of chemistry or, more broadly, scientific thought, from the ancient Greeks through the 19th century."-- "Library Journal"
"Mendeleyev's Dream is a wonderfully entertaining and stimulating journey from alchemy to chemistry in search of the elements of our universe. It is a book of great clarity and depth."--Jim Crace, bestselling author of 'Harvest'
"Strathern does an excellent job revitalizing the drama of chemistry's volatile mix of ideas and substances. His readable romp through the annals of chemistry conveys a remarkable amount of information about science in general."-- "Sunday Times (London)"
"Strathern is an entertaining guide, capable of marshaling a colorful cast of thinkers and experimentalists. It's a pleasure to find a popular book about chemistry."-- "New Scientist"
"Taking a traditional view of intellectual history, Strathern considers the 17th century as the era when the 'new science' of chemistry could at last 'shed its oriental esoteric past.'"-- "Wall Street Journal"
O autorze
Szczegóły produktu
- Język : Angielski
- Twarda oprawa : 320 str.
- ISBN-10 : 1643130692
- ISBN-13 : 978-1643130699
- Wymiary : 15.24 x 3.05 x 22.86 cm
- Recenzje klientów:
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Scientific concepts are introduced well, with little ore than a layman's understanding of chemistry or philosophy assumed.
The only (minor) concerns I have are that ther is some repetition, and the author takes a somewhat inconsistent approach to the personalities encountered. For example, Paracelsus receives pages of biographical detail, presumably because it is easy to dredge up his life story, which is anyway inherently colourful and thus easy to write about, while other luminaries, with more relevant life stories, may get little more than a paragraph.
But overall I would highly recommend this book to the general reader, and believe that it will help the high school chemistry teacher too: Give it to those ace students who have no trouble with the concepts but would benefit from a different perspective on the meaning of scientific truth; give it to those keen students who have trouble with accepting concepts that are served to them cold - they may find it easier to accept if they can place a concept in its historical context, and understand how the then-practitioners achieved their insight.
As an adult with no formal training in Chemistry I found this a very useful and entertaining book.
The author goes to great lengths to show that early discoveries were mostly an accidental by product of trying various recipes to transform by alchemy a compound into gold. Stories of various wizards, necromancers and outright charlatans with their beakers and retorts attempting the impossible and discovering a technique or a new compound keep my interest.
Slowly and methodically, with many back slips the body of chemical understanding was expanded. What seemed to many a crazy quilt of knowledge started to solidify into a science. Author Strathern is able to maintain a lively narrative of the foibles and breakthroughs over many centuries. No easy feat indeed.
The opening and concluding chapters concern Mendeleyev discovery of the periodic table. Strathern's description of this man, his short fuse of a temper and his discovery are worth the price of the book. Helpful is the inclusion of a listing of selected readings by chapter and an index.
This book reads like a primer for the curious about a most fascinating subject. I would recommend it for anyone interest in the subject but particularly for high school student.