In this book, Paul Strathern, the award-winning novelist and expositor of complex ideas, unravels the dramatic history of chemistry through the quest for the elements. 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. 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.
- ISBN10 1643130692
- ISBN13 9781643130699
- Publish Date 4 June 2019 (first published 25 May 2000)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Pegasus Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 320
- Language English