Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest for the Elements - Paul Strathern

The Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev can be considered to be the father of chemistry. Without his Periodic Table, and the understanding of the elements that it facilitated, it's unlikely that we would have the marvellous materials and chemical products that we take for granted today. Imagine a world without plastics, semiconductors, alloys, refrigerating agents, or explosives; we would literally still be in the dark ages. In 1869, Mendeleyev was grappling with the problem of the chemical elements. Elements are materials that cannot be broken down into a simpler form (e.g. sodium and chlorine are elements whereas salt (sodium chloride) is a compound formed ...  Read the complete review