Emsley brings an element of sanity to science writing., April 4, 2002

There's got to be a lot of folks out there like myself who at one point or another had some genuine interest in science as a topic but had that enthusiasm crushed by what passes for "science education" in our schools. Between nerdy and boring teachers in middle and high school and science texts whose only real point seems to be rendering the reading of statutory tax law or specifications for sewer pipe manufacturing seem exciting. People who were not necessarily destined to be scientists but who gladly would have dived into the subject had there been any incentive whatsoever to do so.

I was looking for a good book on the elements over the last few years and kept drawing a blank. The few I found were too technical, too simple, or involved strange treatments. Than I found this book! It was exactly what I wanted. A complete treatment of the elements of the periodic table alphabetically arranged. When I first found it I thought I would test it out by checking a rather obscure biological fact- certain tunicates (ascidians) concentrate vanadium in their blood. On p. 486 I found the reference with one error- Ascidia was called a "worm" (it is a Urochordate). However, the author made up for this by noting under copper that snails, spiders, octopi and oysters utilize that element as part of an oxygen-carrying blood pigment, making their blood pale blue.

John Emsley writes excellent books on chemistry and Emsley's The Elements 3rd is an indispensable guide to the chemical elements for scientists. However, a layperson delving into The Elements may find it tough going because of its myriad numbers and tiny tidbits of text. In Nature's Building Blocks, Emsley dispenses with most of the numbers and expands the tidbits of text into page length essays on each element. Even though the book is clearly a reference book, the section on each element is an enjoyable read. Each section is divided into subsections that relate the element's significance to the cosmos, humans, food, medicine, history, war, economics, the environment, and then ends with a section called the Element of Suprise one. This book contains the kind of information I need as a chemistry and earth science teacher in a high school to spice up discussions on the...