Antimony, Gold, and Jupiters Wolf, Peter Wothers
Antimony, Gold, and Jupiters Wolf, Peter Wothers
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Antimony, Gold, and Jupiter's Wolf
How the elements were named

Author: Peter Wothers

Narrator: Julian Elfer

Unabridged: 9 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/28/2020


Synopsis

The iconic Periodic Table of the Elements is now in its most satisfyingly elegant form. This is because all the 'gaps' corresponding to missing elements in the seventh row, or period, have recently been filled and the elements named. But where do these names come from? For some, usually the most recent, the origins are quite obvious, but in others—even well-known elements such as oxygen or nitrogen—the roots are less clear.

Here, Peter Wothers explores the fascinating and often surprising stories behind how the chemical elements received their names. Delving back in time to explore the history and gradual development of chemistry, he sifts through medieval manuscripts for clues to the stories surrounding the discovery of the elements, showing how they were first encountered or created, and how they were used in everyday lives. While some of the origins of the names were controversial (and indeed incorrect—some saying, for instance, that oxygen might be literally taken to mean 'the son of a vinegar merchant'), they have nonetheless influenced language used around the world to this very day. Throughout, Wothers delights in dusting off the original sources, and bringing to light the astonishing, the unusual, and the downright weird origins behind the names of the elements so familiar to us today.

About Peter Wothers

Peter Wothers is a teaching fellow in the department of chemistry, University of Cambridge, and a fellow and director of studies in chemistry at St Catharine's College. He is heavily involved in promoting chemistry to young students and members of the public, and, in 2010, created the popular Cambridge Chemistry Challenge competition for students in the UK. Peter is known nationally and internationally for his demonstration lectures and presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, titled The Modern Alchemist, in 2012. He has also authored a number of popular textbooks, including Why Chemical Reactions Happen and Chemical Structure and Reactivity, with colleague James Keeler. In 2014, he was awarded an M.B.E. for Services to Chemistry in the Queen's Birthday Honours.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian on December 04, 2019

There aren't many popular science titles on chemistry topics, so it was great to see Antimony, Gold and Jupiter's Wolf (the last, in case you are wondering is tungsten, aka wolfram). As a science writer I think I was the perfect target audience, because Peter Wothers combines history of science, the......more

Goodreads review by Cam on October 08, 2020

I don't normally write public reviews, but this is a relatively new book without many reviews, so I thought I'd chip in. An avid reader of popular science books, I was pretty excited to pick this one up. After a very strong first chapter the rest of the book was a major letdown. The beginning was awe......more

Goodreads review by Louis on September 04, 2020

This book was the summer read I was looking for. It brought me back to my prepa days when I studied much of the chemistry and physics discussed in the book. It taught me a great deal on the history of science through great etymology stories with a cast of known characters (famous scientists of which......more

Goodreads review by Marchesan on August 30, 2020

A very good book. It should be read by any will be chemist or actual chemist: it really gives you the sens of developments our field has gone thought in the past Centuries. Very few books in the history of science field I read succeeded so well in conveying the challenges, the hopes, the trivialitie......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on September 25, 2020

Much of this book struggled to hold my attention. A lot of the linguistic detail dragged and the stories of the scientists sometimes failed to capture the joy of discovery. It had some interesting moments around the time of the Royal Society of England, but a lot of it detailed minutia of experiment......more