The elements: A very short introduction

193 Pages·2004·3.041 MB·English

by  Philip Ball

The Elements: A Very Short Introduction
VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating
and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have
been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.
The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics
in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next
few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes- a Very Short
Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to
conceptual art and cosmology.
Very Short Introductions available now:
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
Julia Annas Simon Critchley
THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE COSMOLOGY Peter Coles
John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY
ANIMAL RIGHTS Fred Piper and Sean Murphy
David DeGrazia DARWIN Jonathan Howard
ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick
ARCHITECTURE DESCARTES Tom Sorell
Andrew Ballantyne DRUGS Leslie Iversen
ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes T H E EA RT H Martin Redfern
ART HISTORY Dana Arnold EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
ART THEORY BRITAIN Paul Langford
Cynthia Freeland EMOTION Dylan Evans
THE HISTORYOF EMPIRE Stephen Howe
ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin ENGELS Terrell Carver
ATHEISM Julian Baggini ETHICS Simon Blackburn
AUGUSTINE HenryChadwick THE EUROPEAN UNION
BARTHES Jonathan Culler John Pinder
THE BIBLE John Riches EVOLUTION
BRITISH POLITICS Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
Anthony Wright FASCISM Kevin Pass mo re
BUDDHA Michael Carrithers THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
BUDDHISM DamienKeown William Doyle
THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe FREUD Anthony Storr
CHOICETHEORY GALILEO Stillman Drake
Michael Allingham GANDHI BhikhuParekh
CLASSICS Mary Beard and GLOBALIZATION
John Henderson Manfred Steger
CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard HEGEL Peter Singer
THE COLD WAR HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood
Robert McMahon HINDUISM KimKnott
HISTORY John H.Arnold POLITICS Kenneth Minogue
HOBBE5 Richard Tuck POSTCOLONIALISM
HUME A.J.Ayer Robert Young
IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTMODERNISM
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Christopher Butler
Sue Hamilton POSTSTRUCTURALI5M
INTELLIGENCE IanJ. Deary Catherine Belsey
ISLAM Malise Ruthven PREHISTORY Chris Gosden
JUDAISM Norman Solomon PSYCHOLOGY Gillian Butler and
JUNG Anthony Stevens Freda McManus
KANT Roger Scruton QUANTUM THEORY
KIERKEGAARD John Polkinghorne
Patrick Gardiner ROMAN BRITAIN
THE KORAN Michael Cook Peter Salway
LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler
LITERARY THEORY RUSSELL A. C. Grayling
Jonathan Culler RUSSIAN LITERATURE
LOCKE John Dunn Catriona Kelly
LOGIC Graham Priest THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner S. A. Smith
MARX Peter Singer SCHIZOPHRENIA
MATHEMATICS Chris Frith and Evejohnstone
Timothy Gowers SCHOPENHAUER
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN Christopher Janaway
John Gillingham and SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer
Ralph A. Griffiths SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
MODERN IRELAND ANTHROPOLOGY
Senia Paseta John Monaghan and Peter Just
MUSIC Nicholas Cook SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce
NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner SOCRATES C. C. W.Taylor
NINETEENTH-CENTURY SPINOZA Roger Scruton
BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and STUART BRITAIN
H. C. G. Matthew John Morrill
NORTHERN IRELAND TERRORISM Charles Townshend
Marc Mulholland THEOLOGY David F. Ford
PAUL E. P. Sanders THE TUDORS John Guy
PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig TWENTIETH-CENTURY
PHILOSOPHYOFSCIENCE BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan
Samir Okasha WITTGENSTEIN A. C Grayling
PLATO Julia Annas WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman
Available soon:
AFRICAN HISTORY FUNDAMENTALISM
John Parker and Richard Rathbone Malise Ruthven
ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw HABERMAS Gordon Finlayson
THE BRAIN Michael O'Shea HIEROGLYPHS
BUDDHIST ETHICS Penelope Wilson
Damien Keown HIROSHIMA B. R.Tomlinson
CAPITALISM James Fulcher HUMAN EVOLUTION
CHAOS Leonard Smith Bernard Wood
CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead Paul Wilkinson
CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy JAZZ Brian Morton
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE MANDELA Tom Lodge
Robert Tavernor MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope
CLONING ArleneJudith Klotzko THE MIND Martin Davies
CONTEMPORARYART MOLECULES Philip Ball
Julian Stallabrass MYTH Robert Segal
THE CRUSADES NATIONALISM Steven Crosby
Christopher Tyerman PERCEPTION Richard Gregory
DADAAND SURREALISM PHILOSOPHYOF RELIGION
David Hopkins Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot
DERRIDA Simon Glendinning PHOTOGRAHY Steve Edwards
DESIGN JohnHeskett THE PRESOCRATICS
DINOSAURS David Norman Catherine Osborne
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson THE RAJ DenisJudd
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta THE RENAISSANCE
EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY Jerry Brotton
Geraldine Pinch RENAISSANCEART
THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball Geraldine Johnson
THE END OF THE WORLD SARTRE Christina Howells
Bill McGuire THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn Helen Graham
THE FIRST WORLD WAR TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
Michael Howard THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
FREEWILL Thomas Pink Martin Conway
For more information visit our web site
www.oup.co.uk/vsi
Philip Ball
THE ELEMENTS
A Very Short Introduction
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6DP
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi
Sao Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Philip Ball 2002
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published as The Ingredients 2002
First published as a Very Short Introduction 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 10: 0-19-284099-1
ISBN 13: 978-0-19-284099-8
3579 10 8642
Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
Ashford Colour Press Ltd., Gosport, Hants
Preface
When I was asked to write an introduction to the elements as a
companion volume to my book Stories of the Invisible, itself an
introduction to molecules, I had mixed feelings. After all, in the
earlier book I had been perhaps less than respectful towards the
Periodic Table, that famous portrait of all the known chemical elements.
Specifically, I had suggested that chemists cease to promote the notion
that chemistry begins with this table, since a basic understanding of
molecular science need embrace only a very limited selection of the
hundred or more elements that the table now contains. No piano tutor
would start by instructing a young pupil to play every note on the
keyboard. Far better to show how just a few keys suffice for constructing
a host of simple tunes. As music is about tunes, chords, and harmonies,
not notes per se, so chemistry is about compounds and molecules,
not elements.
But no one who is a chemist at heart can resist the elements, and
that includes me. It includes Oliver Sacks too, who as a boy set about
collecting the elements as most other boys collected stamps or coins.
He wanted to own them all. In the 1940s it was not so hard to add to
one's collection: Sacks could go to Griffin & Tatlock in Finchley, north
London, and spend his pocket money on a lump of sodium, which he
would then send fizzing over the surface of Highgate Ponds near
his home. I envy him; the best I could do was to smuggle lumps of
sulphur and bottles of mercury out of the school laboratory.
These elements were like precious stones or exquisite confectioneries.
I wanted to touch and smell them, although prudence held me back
from tasting. This tactile, sensual experience was made more poignant
by the knowledge that these substances were pure, unalloyed,
irreducible. They were the primal stuff of creation, sitting in my hand.
So I knew I would not be able to resist the lure of writing about the
elements. But I began to see also that an introduction to the elements
need not after all become a tour of the Periodic Table—which anyway
others have conducted before me, and more skilfully or more
exhaustively than I would be able to manage. The story of the elements
is the story of our relationship with matter, something that predates any
notion of the Periodic Table. Intimacy with matter does not depend on a
detailed knowledge of silicon, phosphorus, and molybdenum; it flows
from the pleasurable density of a silver ingot, the cool sweetness of
water, the smoothness of polished jade. That is the source of the
fundamental question: what is the world made from?
So there are 'elements' in this book that you will find in no Periodic
Table: water and air, salt, subtle phlogiston. No matter that chemistry
has now pulled them apart or banished them entirely; they are part of
the table's legacy, and part of our pool of cultural symbols.
I am extremely grateful for the comments, advice, and materials I
have received on various specific topics in this book from Al Ghiorso,
Darleane Hoffmann, Scott Lehman, Jens N0rskov, and Jim White. My
thanks go also to Shelley Cox for her enthusiasm and faith in
commissioning the book.
Philip Ball
London
March 2002
Contents
List of figures x
1 Aristotle's quartet: The elements in antiquity 1
2
Revolution: How oxygen changed the world 21
3
Gold: The glorious and accursed element 40
4
The eightfold path: Organizing the elements 65
5
The atom factories: Making new elements 91
6
The chemical brothers: Why isotopes are useful 118
7
For all practical purposes: Technologies of the
elements 139
Notes 159
Further reading 164
Index 165