Nature's Building Blocks

John Emsley's Nature's Building Bocks was published in paperback in 2003. In this readable, informative, and fascinating guide to the elements are entries on each of the 100-odd chemical elements, arranged alphabetically from actinium to zirconium. Each entry comprises an explanation of where the element's name comes from, followed by Body element (the role it plays in living things), Element of history (how and when it was discovered), Economic element (what it is used for), Environmental element (where it occurs, how much), Chemical element (facts, figures, and narrative), and Element of surprise (an amazing, little-known fact). Since publication of the first edition there have been a number of developments. Three new chemical elements have been named and validated: darmstadtium, roetgenium, and copernicium and the section on 'transfermium elements' has now been incorporated into the main part of the book. Economic uses of elements have grown, and some quite rare elements such as Scandium are now economically important, along with updates to elements such as gold due to new roles in industry. Fully revised and updated for 2010, this browsable compendium holds a wealth of useful information.

ISBN 0199605637   Pages 720 ISBN13 9780199605637 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 1064 Publisher Oxford University Press   Published in Oxford Imprint Oxford University Press   Previous ISBN 9780198503408 Format Paperback   Height (mm) 233 Publication date 25 Aug 2011   Width (mm) 163 DEWEY 546   Spine width (mm) 38 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level General, Tertiary education

Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; The elements (A-Z); The periodic table; Appendix: the discovery of the elements in chronological order; Bibliography; Lists of elements and atomic numbers; Index

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