| Description |
1 online resource (xiv, 257 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
Cover; Contents; Preamble: The Periodic Table and the Da Vinci Code; 1 Mr Khama is Coming to Dinner; 2 From Bitterfeld with Love; 3 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Airship; 4 The Spy and the Saracen's Secret; 5 Biopiracy: The Curse of the Nutmeg; 6 Death at Number 29; 7 Blue Blooded Stones and the Prisoner in the Crystal Cage; 8 Diamonds are Forever and Zirconium is for Submarines; 9 Graphite Valley: IT in the Eighteenth-Century Lake District; 10 The Emperor and Miss Smilla; 11 Rendezvous on the High Plateau; 12 The Last Alchemist in Paris |
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13 Pardon My French: Captain Haddock and the Sufferings of the Savoyards14 Two Brilliant Careers; 15 War and Vanity; 16 When State Security was a Stinking Business; 17 Bonaparte's Bursting Buttons: A Thin Story; 18 I Told You So, Said Marcus Vitruvius Pollio; 19 A Shiny Surface and a Tainted Past; 20 The Actress and the Spin Doctor; 21 Of Pea-Soup, Dangers of Coffee in the Morning, and the Test of Mr Marsh; 22 To Take Back the Future; Acknowledgments; Bibliography; References; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; X; Y; Z |
| Summary |
This is a book about discovery and disaster, exploitation and invention, warfare and science - and the relationship between human beings and the chemical elements that make up our planet. Lars Ohrstrom introduces us to a variety of elements from S to Pb through tales of ordinary and extraordinary people from around the globe. We meet African dictators controlling vital supplies of uranium; eighteenth-century explorers searching out sources of precious metals; industrial spiesstealing the secrets of steel-making. We find out why the Hindenburg airship was tragically filled with hydrogen, not he |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 228-241) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Chemistry -- History.
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Discoveries in science -- History
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Chemical elements.
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Chemistry -- Popular works
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Elements
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elements (chemical substances)
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SCIENCE -- Chemistry -- General.
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Chemical elements
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Chemistry
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Discoveries in science
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Popular Science and Mathematics.
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| Genre/Form |
History
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Popular works
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780191637056 |
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019163705X |
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129996673X |
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9781299966734 |
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9780191637063 |
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0191637068 |
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