How the World Works: The Periodic Table: From Hydrogen to Oganesson

by Anne Rooney

Everything in the universe is made of chemical elements, including you. In 1869, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev produced a periodic table designed to illustrate the properties of the known elements. This arrangement of the elements in order of increasing atomic number was an important milestone in the development of chemistry, and led to the establishment of periodic law.

Written in a straightforward, easily comprehensible way, How the World The Periodic Table explores the story of each element, describing the people who discovered them, and taking us on a journey of discovery from the dawn of science to the space age.

Genres: Chemistry, Science, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

Published March 6, 2019

About the author

Anne Rooney gained a degree and then a PhD in medieval literature from Trinity College, Cambridge. After a period of teaching medieval English and French literature at the universities of Cambridge and York, she left to pursue a career as a freelance writer. She has written many books for adults and children on a variety of subjects, including literature and history. She lives in Cambridge and is Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Essex.

Reviews

[Mary Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific book for the layperson. An interesting and informative book ... and very encouraging. I understood more than I expected to and will read further to try to grasp what I didn't understand.

[Franz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This, I think, is an excellent introduction into chemistry as it relates to the elements. It reads well, is logically organized and as current as a book aimed at a general audience can get. A keeper for future reference.

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is weirdly captivating in a way you would never expect a book about the period table to be