The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe |  | Author: Theodore Gray
Creators: Nick Mann, Theodore Gray
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $16.83
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Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 848
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 10.4 x 10.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 1579128149
Dewey Decimal Number: 546
EAN: 9781579128142
ASIN: 1579128149
Publication Date: October 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9781579128142 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
An eye-opening, original collection of gorgeous, never-before-seen photographic representations of the 118 elements in the periodic table.
The elements are what we, and everything around us, are made of. But how many elements has anyone actually seen in pure, uncombined form? The Elements provides this rare opportunity. Based on five years of research and photography, the pictures in this book make up the most complete, and visually arresting, representation available to the naked eye of every atom in the universe. Organized in order of appearance on the periodic table, each element is represented by a spread that includes a stunning, full-page, full-color photograph that most closely represents it in its purest form. For example, at -183˚C, oxygen turns from a colorless gas to a beautiful pale blue liquid.
Also included are fascinating facts, figures, and stories of the elements as well as data on the properties of each, including atomic weight, density, melting and boiling point, valence, electronegativity, and the year and location in which it was discovered. Several additional photographs show each element in slightly altered forms or as used in various practical ways. The element's position on the periodic table is pinpointed on a mini rendering of the table and an illustrated scale of the element's boiling and/or melting points appears on each page along with a density scale that runs along the bottom.
Packed with interesting information, this combination of solid science and stunning artistic photographs is the perfect gift book for every sentient creature in the universe.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 41
Will look great on any table, periodic or otherwise October 7, 2009
Gavin Scott (Sunnyvale, CA United States)
54 out of 55 found this review helpful
The Elements is a photographic tour de force of items from Theo Gray's personal collection of element samples. If he were to put on a museum show or do a PBS series, this would be the companion book.
It is a beautiful book, with excellent photography and very high resolution printing on a semi-matte black paper which gives the pictures a floating-in-space quality. About my only gripe is that this is the sort of paper that tends to absorb oil from your fingers and acquire permanent fingerprints, so one has to take a bit of care to keep it looking nice.
The bulk of the book consists of a two-page spread for each of elements 1 through 100. The left hand side of each spread will be a full-page image, typically of the element in its native mineral or a refined form, or some object constructed of the material etc. The right hand page contains a few paragraphs of interesting information/trivia about the element, as well as several images of items from the author's collection of objects made of, containing, or otherwise related to it.
For each there are also some pertinent facts such as its position in the periodic table, and diagrams of the atomic emission spectrum, the melting and boiling points, electron order filling, crystal structure, and some basic numerical facts of atomic weight, density, and radius.
There's also some introductory material and additional discussion of elements 101-118.
This is not a formal reference work in any sense. It's a picture book along with interesting trivia and information. But it is also a fabulously entertaining tour of the elements that make up our world, and it's an absolute joy to curl up with and browse through. A very satisfying thing to possess.
It also vividly demonstrates that there will still be a place for physical books for a long time, no matter how successful devices like the Kindle are. This is one you need to hold in your hands rather than read on some kind of screen (no matter how good).
This book gets firmly placed on my list of must-haves for anyone interested in science and the nature of our world and the universe. Very appropriate for science fans of any age.
Not Just Beautiful-- It's Hilarious November 6, 2009
Steve W. Bonds (Beaverton, OR)
27 out of 27 found this review helpful
Chock full of beautifully done photos, as well as sharp wit. Just about every page has something silly somewhere. For example:
"Sodium is the most explosive and the best tasting of all the alkali metals"
"Disposable oxygen tanks for hobby brazing and as a refreshing pick-me-up..."
"So many important chemicals have been discovered by accident that one has to wonder what a bunch of bumblers chemists are"
"Bananas are high in potassium, thus both healthy and radioactive."
"This piece of the mineral thorite might contain an atom of francium, if you watch closely."
He's also quite informative. For example, some of you may have taken exception to his comment on sodium, which he explains on the page about cesium:
"Cesium is widely listed as the most reactive of all the alkali metals, and technically it is. When you drop a piece in a bowl of water it *instantly* explodes, sending water flying in all directions. But that doesn't mean it makes the biggest bang of the alkali metals. Sodium takes longer to explode when tossed into water but the whole time you're waiting, a plume of hydrogen gas is building up, and when all that hydrogen ignites, the explosion is much bigger than anything you can get with cesium"
Sounds like some important research there!
Or this fact that makes perfect sense, though I never really thought about it:
"Even lead will float on mercury"
Overall just an excellent, easily readable, pretty, thought-provoking book.
A Gorgeous Must-Have Book for all Nature Fans October 12, 2009
Steven Adler (Seattle, WA USA)
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
The Elements by Theodore Gray is a must-have book for anyone who has ever wondered just what exactly the world is made of. That includes curious kids as well as adults with even a passing interest in nature, science and technology. The luscious photographs in this coffee table size book will captivate even young elementary students, while the surprising, witty, non-technical text will keep even professional chemists and engineers entertained and informed.
I opened my newly received copy late at night, intending to look at a few pages before bed. I literally could not put it down, and read it straight through from hydrogen to element 118, so newly discovered it doesn't even have a name yet. Each element's vignette smoothly segues into the next, so it works like an old radio serial melodrama - you just have to keep reading to find out what happens next!
Each element is covered in its order in the periodic table. Along with the multiple photos of pure elements and common (matches and nails) and exotic (atomic clocks and lasers) things containing them from Gray's extensive museum quality collection, you will learn trivia about ones you know well (aluminum, a metal so precious that Napoleon preferred it to gold for VIP dinnerware, is now thrown in the garbage after wrapping sandwiches); ones you might remember from high school (poisonous bromine is in every can of Orange Crush); and ones you probably never heard of (you are required by law to put radioactive americium in every one of your children's bedrooms, and you have!) Lovely diagrams show the electronic configuration, color spectrum and crystal shape. Melting and boiling point bars at the page margins cleverly form a graphic demonstration of the elements' periodic properties when the book is fanned open.
Objects pictured and discussed come from a wide variety of fields including painting, agriculture, medicine, aviation, numismatics, ancient history, warfare, popular culture, computers, jewelry and more.
For a fine art work of this size and quality, the price is ridiculously inexpensive. The high resolution photographs which fill each element's double page spread are printed on a deep black background, and seem to jump out of the page into your hands. You will find out why you might not want this to happen with arsenic or polonium.
The Elements will enhance your appreciation of the stuff the stars, the planets and we ourselves are made of, and make the universe, and your bookshelf, a more beautiful place.
a must-have book for your coffee table October 10, 2009
Mark Crispin (Bainbridge Island, WA USA)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
This marvelous book is stunning, both in its beautiful photographs and it its clear, lucid, and other humorous text. Whether you are a nascent element collector, a science buff, a parent trying to stimulate science interest in your kids, or just someone who likes to have a work of beauty in your home, this book is for you.
There's something in it for everyone. The minute scientific detail is there; but it does not get in the way of reading the book as narrative. Above all else, there is the sense of "science is fun stuff".
This book serves both as a reference and as something that you read cover to cover. Each element description seques into the next, and it becomes impossible to put down.
"The Elements" would be a bargain at twice the price. Theodore Gray has come up with a true winner here.
My husband swooned over this book. December 3, 2009
Colorado reader & parent (Colorado Springs, CO)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
We saw this book on a table at a major book chain. He picked it up, flipped through it and put it down. He did this about 3 times and practically begged to get it (as if I would say 'no' to getting a book!)(and no, he does not need my permission). You'd have thought I was telling a 6 year old he was getting a new puppy, bicycle, and ice cream all at the same time.
My husband likes non-fiction books and books with pictures - a novel usually won't interest him and a cookbook without pictures will be ignored no matter how hungry he is. He doesn't have any particular interest in chemistry, but is curious about things in general and likes to know facts. This book grabbed him with the stunning visual aspects, but kept him interested with its logical layout and description and examples of each element. The info nuggets are interesting and useful - you won't be a chemist when you finish the book, but you'll know more about each element than you probably did before. He only reads a couple of elements a day. Conversations for the past 3 weeks have been peppered with "Did you know that (pick an element) is (something cool) and you when you mix it with (something normal) it (does something cool)?"
This is a winner for curious people that are very visually oriented. Even curious kids could get interested, but might need vocabulary help. This is a gift book that will get read.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 41
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