Periodic Tales

图书信息

作者	Aldersey-Williams, Hugh
出版社	HarperCollins e-books
ISBN	9780062078810
出版时间	2011-03-01
字数	318.5万
分类	HarperCollins e-books,进口书,外文原版书,小说

读书简介

Like the alphabet, the calendar, or the zodiac, the periodic table of the chemical elements has a permanent place in our imagination. But aside from the handful of common ones (iron, carbon, copper, gold), the elements themselves remain wrapped in mystery. We do not know what most of them look like, how they exist in nature, how they got their names, or of what use they are to us. Welcome to a dazzling tour through history and literature, science and art. In Periodic Tales, you'll meet iron that rains from the heavens and neon as it lights its way to vice. You'll learn how lead can tell your future and why zinc may one day line your coffin. You'll discover what connects the bones in your body with the White House in Washington, the glow of a streetlight with the salt on your dinner table.From ancient civilizations to contemporary couture, from the oxygen of publicity to the phosphorous in your pee, the elements are near and far and all around us. Unlocking their astonishing secrets and colorful pasts, Periodic Tales is a passionate journey through mines and artists' studios, to factories and cathedrals, into the woods and to the sea to discover the true stories of these fascinating but mysterious building blocks of the universe.

目录

Dedication

Contents

List of Illustrations

Prologue

Part One

El Dorado

Going Platinum

Noble Metals, Ignobly Announced

The Ochreous Stain

The Element Traders

Among the Carbonari

Plutonium Charades

Mendeleev’s Suitcases

The Liquid Mirror

Part Two

The Circumnavigation of the Sulphur

Pee is for Phosphorus

‘As under a green sea’

‘Humanitarian nonsense’

Slow Fire

Our Lady of Radium

Nightglow of Dystopia

Cocktails at the Pale Horse

The Light of the Sun

Part Three

To the Cassiterides

Dull Lead’s Grey Truth

Our Perfect Reflection

The Worldwide Web

Au Zinc

Banalization

‘Turn’d to barnacles’

The Guild of Aerospace Welders

The March of the Elements

Part Four

Chromatic Revolution

‘Lonely-chrome America’

Abbé Suger’s Sheet Sapphire

Inheritance Powder

Rainbows in the Blood

Crushing Emeralds

The Crimson Light of Neon

Jezebel’s Eyes

Part Five

Swedish Rock

Europium Union

Auerlicht

Gadolin and Samarsky, Everymen of the Elements

Ytterby Gruva

Epilogue

Notes

References and Select Bibliography

Text Credits

Searchable Terms

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Other Books by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher