Book description
Everything is made of them, from the furthest reaches of the universe
to this book that you hold in your hands, including you. Like you, the
elements have lives: personalities and attitudes, talents and
shortcomings, stories rich with meaning. You may think of them as the
inscrutable letters of the periodic table but you know them much better
than you realise. Welcome to a dazzling tour through history and
literature, science and art. Here you ll meet iron that rains from the
heavens and noble gases that light the way to vice. You ll learn how
lead can tell your future while zinc may one day line your coffin. You
ll discover what connects the bones in your body with the Whitehouse in
Washington, the glow of a streetlamp with the salt on your dinner table.
From ancient civilisations to contemporary culture, from the oxygen of
publicity to the phosphorus in your pee, the elements are near and far
and all around us. Unlocking their astonishing secrets and colourful
pasts, Periodic Tales will take you on a voyage of wonder and discovery,
excitement and novelty, beauty and truth. Along the way, you ll find
that their stories are our stories, and their lives are inextricable
from our own. Hugh Aldersey-Williams studied natural sciences at
Cambridge. He is the author of several books exploring science, design
and architecture and has curated exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert
Museum and the Wellcome Collection. He lives in Norfolk with his wife
and son.
