Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest For the Elements

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A promising scholar, Mendeleev — also spelled Mendeleyev in English — published papers by the time he was 20 and attended the world’s first chemistry conference at 26. The title of this book is misleading, if from it you assume the book is primarily about Mendeleyev - far from it. Beginning with the origins of alchemy, Strathern brings us through the evolution of science right up to Mendeleev's discovery of the periodic table, along the way emphasizing and acknowledging how the many mistakes and false theories we've held throughout time have simultaneously hindered and also paved the way for future discovery. Surely some of them were, but most of them were people of their time, striving to understand their world to the best of their ability, their ability being blunted by whatever prejudices they grew up with, which is no different than scientists are today. From that fateful moment, Strathern takes us back 2,500 years to the foundations of Western science.

Paul Strathern is a Somerset Maugham Award-winning novelist, and his nonfiction works include The Venetians, Death in Florence, The Medici, Mendeleyev's Dream, The Florentines, Empire, and The Borgias, all available from Pegasus Books. Indeed, in 1875 Paul Lecoq identified gallium, which had all the properties needed to fill the gap between aluminium and uranium. Most of the alchemist and scientist names sounded familiar and I remembered most of their contribution thanks to Asimov’s remarkable style: easy-to-read but powerful and engaging as a good novel. In the Prologue, Strathern sets the scene in Mendeleyev’s country house on a cold winter’s day of February 1869. It is also extremely well matched to the fascinating story adduced in this absorbing and enlightening book.

So, if you're looking for a whistle stop tour of celebrities from the history of chemistry then this is the book for you. 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. The author clearly gets annoyed with the religious meanderings and beliefs of some figures in the book but also conveys how some of these side quests ultimately led to the goal. Despite this work's many merits, Strathern's authorial alchemy hasn't managed to turn his base elements into gold. When Kirchhoff had studied sunlight with his spectroscope, he had detected a number of unaccountable dark bands in its spectrum.

Strathern evokes the frustration Mendeleyev is feeling as he approaches the problem again and again from different angles, all to no avail. 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. i think mendeleyev wouldn’t be TOO shocked about how much we rely on his ‘Periodic Law,’ but he’d be a lil amazed about what we’ve found out by using it and developing it each decade.Change country: -Select- Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Islands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Cook Islands Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Republic Gambia Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Namibia Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Niue Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of Croatia Republic of the Congo Reunion Romania Saint Helena Saint Kitts-Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State Venezuela Virgin Islands (U. I expected the book to be more about Mendelev, but he only appears in the preface and at the very end. The discovery of the periodic table lays out the basic material composition of the universe and this has done a tremendous impact to the development of modern science. Framing this history is the life-story of the 19th century Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleyev, who fell asleep at this desk and awoke after dreaming of the Periodic Table - the template upon which modern chemistry is founded, and the formulation of which marked chemistry's coming of age as a science.