30-Second Elements: The 50 most significant chemical elements, each explained in half a minute

Description

The chemical elements are the building blocks of life, but could you discuss the periodic table over the dinner table? Which elements put the blue into blu-ray and the lime into limelight? And do you know enough about antimony, arsenic and aluminium to illuminate the bar with your elemental knowledge? 30-Second Elements presents you with the foundations of chemical knowledge, distilling the 50 most significant chemical elements into half-a-minute individual entries, using nothing more than two pages, 300 words and one picture. Divided into seven chapters, it includes the atomic details of the other 68 elements and the relationships of all 118, as well as biographies of the chemists who transformed scientific knowledge and unlocked the mysteries of life itself. Illustrated with explosive graphics, here is the quickest way to know your arsenic from your europium.

Eric Scerri is a chemist and a leading philosopher of science specialising in the history and philosophy of the periodic table. He is the author of The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance, and A Very Short Introduction to the Periodic Table.