SCIENCES

A Tale of Seven Elements

by Eric Scerri
Oxford Univ. Jun. 2013. 304p. illus. notes. index. ISBN 9780195391312. $19.95. SCI
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Scerri (chemistry & biochemistry, Univ. of California, Los Angeles; The Periodic Table: Its Story and Significance) presents a narrative about seven elements missing from Henry Moseley's 1913 counting method for elements in the periodic table. These "missing" elements, discovered from 1920 to 1945, are scattered over the different groups in the table. The stories behind each one's discovery and uses provide insight into the social and political relationships among scientists of the time. Scerri does a nice job of connecting scientific insight into the isolation and discovery of each element with technical details.
VERDICT With his mixed approach of using both the social and the scientific context to tell each element's story, Scerri supplements more specialized reference works and provides material for all scientists searching for further insight into the elements and the relationships among them. Recent popular works exploring the intersections between the personal and the scientific include Sam Kean's The Disappearing Spoon and William F. Bynum's A Little History of Science. This is highly recommended for all curious science readers and historians of science.
Reviewed by Elizabeth A. Brown, Binghamton Univ. Libs., NY , Apr 15, 2013
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