ISBN : 9780199661091
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 spies stealing the secrets of steel-making. We find out why the Hindenburg airship was tragically filled with hydrogen, not helium; why nail-varnish remover played a key part in World War I; and the real story behind the legend of tin buttons and the downfall of Napoleon. In each chapter, we find out about the distinctive properties of each element and the concepts and principles that have enabled scientists to put it to practical use. These are the fascinating (and sometimes terrifying) stories of chemistry in action.
PREAMBLE: THE PERIODIC TABLE AND THE DA VINCI CODE
1. Mr Khama is coming to dinner
2. From bitterfield with love
3. The curious incident of the dog in the airship
4. The spy and the saracens 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 18th century Lake District
10. The Emperor and Miss Smilla
11. Rendezvous on the high plateau
12. The last alchemist in Paris
13. Pardon my French: Captain Haddock and the sufferings of the Savoyards
14. Two brilliant careers
15. War and vanity
16. When state security was a stinking business
17. Bonapartes bursting buttons: a thin story
18. I told you so, said Marcus Vitruvirus 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
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NOTES
