description: 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.
language: English
title: Mendeleyev's Dream : The Quest for the Elements
titlecomplete: Mendeleyev's Dream : The Quest for the Elements
genres: Historical, Popular Science, History, Biography, Science, Philosophy, History Of Science, Physics, Chemistry, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 682
publisher: Gardners Books