Periodic tales: a cultural history of the elements, from arsenic to zinc - hugh aldersey-williams

In the spirit of A Short History of Nearly Everything comes Periodic Tales .

Award-winning science writer Hugh Andersey-Williams offers readers a captivating look at the elements--and the amazing, little-known stories behind their discoveries.

Periodic Tales is an energetic and wide-ranging book of innovations and innovators, of superstition and science and the myriad ways the chemical elements are woven into our culture, history, and language.

It will delight readers of Genome, Einsteins Dreams , Longitude , and The Age of Wonder .