Biographies & Memoirs

This encyclopedia is a great resource for students, teachers, and professionals alike, covering a broad range of topics in chemistry with clear explanations and detailed illustrations. Its extensive coverage and in-depth explanations make it an excellent reference for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of chemistry.

Comprehensive and up-to-date, this unique four-volume set offers readers a complete overview of the broad spectrum of general chemistry. It enables them to obtain a basic, yet thorough understanding of matter, the processes it undergoes, the principles that govern it, and the international cast of men and women who have been critical in the development of the science of chemistry. From elements, atoms, and molecules to sterochemistry, spectroscopy, and chemical bonding, its clear and concise explanations provide an illuminating and readily comprehensible introduction. Key presentations include forty element definition articles, each providing basic periodic table information and general information on the element in question. Ninety-five biographical articles deal with prominent chemists, while other articles provide additional historical context, particularly with respect to eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century developments.

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi is an impassioned response to the Holocaust: Consisting of 21 short stories, each possessing the name of a chemical element, the collection tells of the author's experiences as a Jewish-Italian chemist before, during, and after Auschwitz in luminous, clear, and unfailingly beautiful prose. It has been named the best science book ever by the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and is considered to be Levi's crowning achievement.

A highly acclaimed scientific book that explores the periodic table as a means to reflect on life, love and the human experience, recommended for chemistry enthusiasts and anyone curious about the world around them.

Azoto, carbonio, idrogeno, oro, arsenico… Sono ventuno gli elementi chimici che dànno il titolo ai racconti di questo libro, e ventuno i capitoli di un'autobiografia che per affinità e accostamenti corre sul filo di una storia personale e collettiva, affondando le radici nell'oscura qualità della materia, raccontando le storie di un mestiere «che è poi un caso particolare, una versione piú strenua del mestiere di vivere». È questo il gigantesco minuscolo gioco che lega osservazione, memoria, scrittura: ne esce ricostruita la vicenda di una formazione maturata negli anni del fascismo, poi nelle drammatiche vicende della guerra: di chi, partendo dalla concretezza del lavoro, impara a capire le cose e gli uomini, a prendere posizione, a misurarsi con ironia e autoironia.

In this day of the atheistic or agnostic stereotype that is attached to the man of science, it is refreshing to study the lives of eleven great scientists who professed Christ as their Lord and Savior and used what they learned to benefit others and glorify God. In the short biographies in Christian Men of Science , we are presented with a distilled version of each man’s scientific accomplishments and the evidences of his Christian faith. These testimonies demonstrate that true scientists can be genuine Christians, and that faith in God and the authority of the Bible is not a sign of inferior intellect. Christian Men of Science includes biographies of Johannes Kepler, Robert Boyle, David Brewster, Michael Faraday, Samuel Morse, Matthew Fontaine Maury, James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Kelvin, Howard Kelley, Henry Morris, and Walt Brown.

The Emperor of Scent is a must-read for those who are interested in unconventional scientific theories. The book tells the story of Luca Turin, a scientific maverick, and his obsession with perfume and human sense of smell. The author, Chandler Burr, uses cutting-edge biology, physics, and chemistry to explain how Turin used his obsession and gift for smell to solve the last great mystery of the senses. The book will leave you fascinated with the intricacies of the human body and its sense of smell.

Uncle Tungsten is recommended for readers who are interested in science, chemistry, and want a glimpse into the early life of neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks. The book provides a unique and distinctive insight into the world of a young budding scientist and is full of charming anecdotes and fascinating experiments. Readers have praised the memoir for its passionate storytelling and detailed descriptions of chemical reactions, as well as its nostalgic and emotional tone.

Oliver Sacks's luminous memoir charts the growth of a mind. Born in 1933 into a family of formidably intelligent London Jews, he discovered the wonders of the physical sciences early from his parents and their flock of brilliant siblings, most notably "Uncle Tungsten" (real name, Dave), who "manufactured lightbulbs with filaments of fine tungsten wire." Metals were the substances that first attracted young Oliver, and his descriptions of their colors, textures, and properties are as sensuous and romantic as an art lover's rhapsodies over an Old Master. Seamlessly interwoven with his personal recollections is a masterful survey of scientific history, with emphasis on the great chemists like Robert Boyle, Antoine Lavoisier, and Humphry Davy (Sacks's personal hero). Yet this is not a dry intellectual autobiography; his parents in particular, both doctors, are vividly sketched. His sociable father loved house calls and "was drawn to medicine because its practice was central in human society," while his shy mother "had an intense feeling for structure ... for her [medicine] was part of natural history and biology." For young Oliver, unhappy at the brutal boarding school he was sent to during the war, and afraid that he would become mentally ill like his older brother, chemistry was a refuge in an uncertain world. He would outgrow his passion for metals and become a neurologist, but as readers of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat know, he would never leave behind his conviction that science is a profoundly human endeavor. --Wendy Smith

Michael Faraday was a British chemist and physicist who contributed significantly to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.