Chemical Education Today edited by
Book & Media Reviews
December is a gift-giving month in many cultures. This month we present some gift book suggestions for your favorite chemist. The first three books reviewed are large format coffee-table books. Written by and for chemists, Nicolaou and Montagnon’s Molecules That Changed the World is an exploration of natural products synthesis. Two books by Theodore Gray target a more general audience: Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do at Home—But Probably Shouldn’t and The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe. And for your favorite organometallic chemist, we present Landmarks in Organo-Transition Metal Chemistry—A Personal View by Helmut Werner. Happy pages to all! CBF The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray; Photographs by Theodore Gray and Nick Mann Black Dog and Leventhal: New York, 2009. 240 pp. ISBN 978-1579128142 (cloth). $29.95 reviewed by Cheryl Baldwin Frech
The Web site of Theodore Gray (1) indicates that he is a cofounder of Wolfram Research, Inc. (which publishes the computer program Mathematica), a columnist for Popular Science, and an element collector. In the latter role, the computer programmer Gray has become a popularizer of chemistry to the public. The Elements is Gray’s second chemistry book to be published this year, joining Mad Science (also reviewed in this issue). The beginning of the book has eight pages of background information on the structure and organization of the periodic table. Each element is highlighted in a two-page spread with text interspersed with excellent photographs that stand out against the black background. The right-hand side of the page is common to all elements and shows the element’s location in the periodic table, its atomic emission spectrum, and various
Cheryl Baldwin Frech University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, OK 73034
physical properties. The book is cleverly printed so you can spread the pages a bit and see a plot of the melting point and boiling points of the elements. Some elements get extra attention: aluminum, iron, titanium, copper, tungsten, gold, lead, and uranium each merit four pages with extra photographs. Beginning with mendelevium, element 101, essentially only the origins of the elements’ names are discussed. The book concludes with a photo of Gray and his personal element collection, a useful bibliography, and a pull-out poster of the periodic table. The photographs in the book are available online (2), but the Web site is not a substitute for this book, which at only a $29.95 list price, is quite affordable. The Elements is a handsome coffee-table book that is appealing to chemists and nonchemists alike. When I brought the book home to prepare this review, my 16-year-old daughter, who has shown minimal interest in chemistry other than to enroll in a high school chemistry course, promptly absconded with the book. Upon my inquiry, she indicated that she was reading the book cover to cover. What do you like about this book? I asked. She said that the layout made getting information easy, each element had common uses described, and there was a lot of scientific information, but it wasn’t boring. She also said the book made me want to learn about elements (emphasis mine), but that you didn’t have to have a degree in chemistry to learn from it. Teachers and parents—this is a strong endorsement from a teenager. My suggestion: buy the book, leave it around your home or office, and see who picks it up. Readers are bound to learn some interesting fact, trend, or use for an element. Literature Cited 1. http://theodoregray.com/ (accessed Oct 2009). 2. http://periodictable.com/ (accessed Oct 2009).
Supporting JCE Online Material
http://www.jce.divched.org/Journal/Issues/2009/Dec/abs1374_1.html Keywords Full text (HTML and PDF)
Cheryl Baldwin Frech is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK 73034; cfrech@ uco.edu. Full text (HTML and PDF)
Kenneth M. Nicholas is in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019;
[email protected]. Note: Ningfeng Zhao would like to acknowledge his coworkers’ contributions to the WileyPLUS with CATALYST review published in J. Chem. Educ. 2009, 86, 692. Sheila Armentrout, Scott Kirkby, Reza Mohseni, and Jeffrey Wardeska joined Zhao in a team project to redesign General Chemistry at East Tennessee State University. CBF 1374
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 86 No. 12 December 2009 • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • © Division of Chemical Education
