Book&Art: Periodic Tales

Written by Francesca Di Turo
Translated by Sarah Fortunée Tabbakh
Italian Version here

The book I would like to suggest today could help anyone understand chemistry, when general chemistry courses just won’t do. In Periodic Tales, the chemical elements, undisputed protagonists of the book, come to life, sweeping us in their adventures that span centuries of history. 

Hugh Aldersey-Williams, chemist and scientist, doesn’t use the classic periodic table to tell the story; the elements are presented according to their cultural relevance (Power, Fire, Arts and Crafts, Beauty and Earth). The reader is involved in the search for elements around the world, finding them in everyday objects.

You might be surprised to know that there was a mystical component in the ancient use of lead and that the author, in search of plutonium, will find it in something quite particular. The reader's attention will be focused on different fronts: from purely scientific questions, to the author's comments, up to the curiosities related to the use of certain elements in antiquity. 

Of course there are references to the ancient art of alchemy and the first experiments conducted to obtain pure elements, such as phosphorus from urine. 

However, if you are expecting detailed information on chemical reactions, you have the wrong book: Periodic Tales highlights how chemistry is inevitably linked to history, art, economics but also how popular beliefs have often influenced the development of scientific culture, for the best and for the worst. 

It certainly isn’t a common summer reading but it will certainly bring you closer to the world of Chemistry that some of us find so difficult to grasp!