Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest For the Elements

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Chemistry has been a neglected area of science writing and Mendeleyev, the king of chemistry, is a largely forgotten genius.

For more than 1/3 of the book, there is almost no chemistry at all, but pages and pages of biographical details of random folks who contributed little or nothing to chemistry (Nicholas of Cusa, I’m looking at you). Trailblazing chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (February 8, 1834–February 2, 1907) came to scientific greatness via an unlikely path, overcoming towering odds to create the periodic table foundational to our understanding of chemistry.It was only when he reentered his own head under the spell of sleep’s uninhibited state that the disjointed bits fell into a pattern and the larger idea expressed itself. In this readable but flawed book, prolific author Strathern (Hawking and Black Holes; Crick, Watson and DNA; etc. The first two chapter on the Greeks (the four elements, beginnings of atomic theory) and the Egyptians (beginnings of alchemy) are an OK start, but the book then takes a serious wrong turn, into meanderings on the historical development of the philosophical underpinnings of the scientific method. Strathern evokes the frustration Mendeleyev is feeling as he approaches the problem again and again from different angles, all to no avail. Just as Newton’s laws and Darwin’s theory of evolution laid the foundation for modern physics and biology respectively, it was Mendeleyev’s Periodic Table that provided the bedrock for chemistry.

Alas, chemistry has lost much of that excitement, but Strathern does an excellent job revitalizing the drama of its volatile mix of ideas and substances. Taking a traditional view of intellectual history, Strathern considers the 17th century as the era when the ‘new science’ of chemistry could at last ‘shed its oriental esoteric past. I’ve always been interested in the history of sciences, arts and literature so I quickly got a copy of it. The author narrates the origins of chemistry from Ancient Greece to the present time in an almost vivid way that makes the story highly interesting and very informative. Strathern is an entertaining guide, capable of marshaling a colorful cast of thinkers and experimentalists.On a wintry February day in 1869 the great Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev fell asleep at his desk after a marathon game of patience. I have no staff, no interns, not even an assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In the Prologue, Strathern sets the scene in Mendeleyev’s country house on a cold winter’s day of February 1869.

But on the other hand, he did pioneer some of the methods of modern chemistry, so maybe he's sort of okay. For the kind of book this is trying to be, pick up Bill Bryson's _A Brief History of Nearly Everything_.

In this elegant, erudite, and entertaining book, Paul Strathern unravels the quixotic history of chemistry through the quest for the elements.