Calcium Carbonate: From the Cretaceous Period into the 21st Century

Rating:
Summary: Life-altering
Review: I'm a big fan of books that give the sweeping histories of common, overlooked substances, particularly when they use language that a layman can understand. (One of my favorites is The 13th Element, which gives the complete history of phosphorus and its promethean relationship to mankind.) Dealing with Calcium Carbonate, this book lives up to its ambitious title, showing how the mineral has influenced everything in civilization, from the earliest chalk artworks, to the plastic on our keyboards. Read this book and you will never look at limestone or paper or a bottle of Tums the same way again. Calcium is as indispensible a part of our experience on earth as carbon or oxygen or nitrogen or cadmium, or any other elements. And what's most remarkable about this book is that it's compelling for everyone. As most of you can probably already infer--I'm not the brightest bulb around. Yet I was enlightened and entertained, from the Cretaceous Period straight through to today. Nice work.

Rating:
Summary: Life-altering
Review: I'm a big fan of books that give the sweeping histories of common, overlooked substances, particularly when they use language that a layman can understand. (One of my favorites is The 13th Element, which gives the complete history of phosphorus and its promethean relationship to mankind.) Dealing with Calcium Carbonate, this book lives up to its ambitious title, showing how the mineral has influenced everything in civilization, from the earliest chalk artworks, to the plastic on our keyboards. Read this book and you will never look at limestone or paper or a bottle of Tums the same way again. Calcium is as indispensible a part of our experience on earth as carbon or oxygen or nitrogen or cadmium, or any other elements. And what's most remarkable about this book is that it's compelling for everyone. As most of you can probably already infer--I'm not the brightest bulb around. Yet I was enlightened and entertained, from the Cretaceous Period straight through to today. Nice work.