Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest for the Elements

An achievement that evokes Longitude and Fermat's Engima, this is the fascinating story of the birth of chemistry.

In Mendeleyev's Dream, Paul Strathern unfurls the history of chemistry, from the Greek philosophers to the Age of Enlightenment's gentlemen—scientists. Bookending his tale is Dmitri Mendeleyev, a 19th-century scientist who awoke one day having dreamt the Periodic Table of Elements, the key to unlocking chemistry's treasures. In the meantime, Strathern introduces us to the Russian's predecessors, from Paracelsus, who presented a pan of cow manure as "the greatest secret in medical science," to Francis Bacon, who died after running out into the snow to prove the benefits of refrigeration on a plucked chicken.Through these mad, brilliant men, Strathern weaves a fascinating, intoxicating work of science writing that moves the spirit as it exhilarates the mind.

About the Author:
Paul Strathern studied physics, chemistry and math atTrinity College, Dublin. He is the author of two successful series of books, Philosophy in 90 Minutes, and The Big Idea: Scientists Who Changed the World.