Periodic Tales

Hugh Aldersey-Williams offers an interesting look at the periodic table of the elements and the little-known stories behind their discoveries and properties. Besides a handful of common ones like copper, iron, silver, and gold, most of the elements remain mysterious. A lot of us do not know what most of them look like or of what use they are to us. Periodic Tales is a book of science and superstition, explorers and scholars, and the various ways the building blocks of matter make their way into our language, history, and culture. Aldersey-Williams takes us on a journey through artists’ studios and factories, cathedrals and ore mines, and shares with us the true stories of the elements.