ANDREW EDE is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta. His most recent book is A History of Science in Society with Lesley Cormack.

[A] delightful book written for an audience of scientists with an interest in the history of science. It is also suitable for nonscientists, as long as they have some level of interest in the fascinating details of how the chemical elements were first recognized as such and then, one by one, more were discovered. The alchemists and their obsession with transmutation, combined with Greek philosophy, on the one hand put a long dent in what would now be recognized as serious chemistry. On the other hand, the alchemists discovered a lot of useful synthetic techniques in their experiments and pioneered the development of useful chemical apparatus. The section on the periodic table and the short piece on the life of Mendeleev were certainly eye-openers for this reviewer. Scientists really do have life a lot easier these days….Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates; faculty; professionals; two-year technical program students.

• 1. Egyptian god Osiris.2. Geometric solids.3. Zeno's paradox.4. Aristotle's model of the Universe.5. Aristotle's Four Elements and Four Qualities.6. Yin Yang symbol.7. Alchemical symbols for materials and planets.8. The Alchemist by David Teniers the Younger, c. 1645.9. Robert Boyle's air pump.10. Joseph Priestley's pneumatic trough used for collecting gases.11. Lavoisier's constant pressure gas pump and reaction vessels.12. The calorimeter.13. Lavoisier's table of simple substances from Elements of Chemistry (1790).14. Dalton's elements and common "atoms." From John Dalton, New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808)15. Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen's spectrocope, from "Chemical analysis by Observation of Spectra," (1860).16. Mendeleev's periodic table from Annalen der Chemie, (1872).17. Ceria and yttria isolation.18. Ultramicroscope.19. Fission.20. Fusion.

ANDREW EDE is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Classics at the University of Alberta. His most recent book is A History of Science in Society with Lesley Cormack.

[A] delightful book written for an audience of scientists with an interest in the history of science. It is also suitable for nonscientists, as long as they have some level of interest in the fascinating details of how the chemical elements were first recognized as such and then, one by one, more were discovered. The alchemists and their obsession with transmutation, combined with Greek philosophy, on the one hand put a long dent in what would now be recognized as serious chemistry. On the other hand, the alchemists discovered a lot of useful synthetic techniques in their experiments and pioneered the development of useful chemical apparatus. The section on the periodic table and the short piece on the life of Mendeleev were certainly eye-openers for this reviewer. Scientists really do have life a lot easier these days….Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates; faculty; professionals; two-year technical program students.

• 1. Egyptian god Osiris.2. Geometric solids.3. Zeno's paradox.4. Aristotle's model of the Universe.5. Aristotle's Four Elements and Four Qualities.6. Yin Yang symbol.7. Alchemical symbols for materials and planets.8. The Alchemist by David Teniers the Younger, c. 1645.9. Robert Boyle's air pump.10. Joseph Priestley's pneumatic trough used for collecting gases.11. Lavoisier's constant pressure gas pump and reaction vessels.12. The calorimeter.13. Lavoisier's table of simple substances from Elements of Chemistry (1790).14. Dalton's elements and common "atoms." From John Dalton, New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808)15. Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen's spectrocope, from "Chemical analysis by Observation of Spectra," (1860).16. Mendeleev's periodic table from Annalen der Chemie, (1872).17. Ceria and yttria isolation.18. Ultramicroscope.19. Fission.20. Fusion.