The Elements: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

193 Pages·2004·7.31 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
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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
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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
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Michael Howard THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
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Philip Ball
THE ELEMENTS
A Very Short Introduction
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Philip Ball 2002
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First published as The Ingredients 2002
First published as a Very Short Introduction 2004
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ISBN 10: 0-19-284099-1
ISBN 13: 978-0-19-284099-8
3579 10 8642
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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