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Rating: 
Summary: The tortuous path from superstition to mystery
Review: In a world of leptons, quarks, muons, superstrings, 10 dimensions of space and an 11-dimensional theory called M theory -- it is hard to remember the electron was discovered just over a century ago. English physicist J.J. Thompson discovered the electron in 1897; since then, there has been an explosion of discoveries. For thousands of years, chemists thought of the world consisted of earth, air, fire and water. It was a theory offered by Empedocles, who lived about 2,500 years ago and was said to be able to control the winds and restore life to a woman who had been dead for 30 days. Once Aristotle endorsed the idea, chemists were stuck with it for nearly two and one-half millennia. Logically, if everything consists of four basic elements -- then, by properly mixing it would be possible to make gold and every other useful item. For example, when mercury ore was heated, a pool of liquid metal was formed. Transformations took place when substances were heated, dissolved, melted, filtered, and crystallized. The key was discovering the proper mixture of the four elements, then keep it secret. Mix tin and copper and the result was bronze, better than both tin and copper and looking a lot like gold. Wise men would have been foolish not to pursue such a promising start. However, it was a dead-end road, even though the ancients had endorsed it. Secrecy was the second crucial ingredient. Alchemists realized if everyone knew the secret of making gold, the social impact would be catastrophic. As a result, every alchemist literally began work based on zero knowledge of what works and what doesn't. Bad ideas were never rejected, good ideas were never shared. It took some real rebels, weirdos and geeks to upset more than two thousand years of error. One of the earliest was Paracelsus; the name he gave himself meant "greater than Celsus," a deservedly famous first century AD Roman physician. Paracelsus, according to one of his contemporaries, "lived like a pig and looked like a sheep drover. He found his greatest pleasure among the company of the most dissolute rabble, and spent most of his time drunk." This is the type of man who first questioned the wisdom of the ages. In an age when religious fundamentalism is becoming ever more terrible, Morris presents a fascinating story of how scientists went from absolute certainty about the world to tenuous uncertainty. It wasn't too long ago that scientists were looking ever deeper into the furthest reaches of the universe; within the past decade, they have discovered that 96 percent of the universe is invisible and for all intents and purposes unknown. Science is the process of uncertainty. It's a lonely, dangerous path of inquiry to follow. The English condemned the man who discovered oxygen as a dangerous radical; the French guillotined the leading scientist of his era, because he didn't fit in with the certainties of revolutionary France; the Russian who came up with the Periodic Table of the elements survived only because of the Czar's protections; and the Nazis would have executed the greatest physicist of the past century because he was Jewish. Care to be a scientist? It takes guts. Morris outlines the risks, dangers and rewards of overthrowing an ancient orthodoxy with skill, humour and insight. Without people who have the courage to challenge the old, accepted and true, our lives would be ruled by sorcery, superstition and suspicion. In brief, it's a wonderful look at how modern thought came to be modern.
Rating:
Summary: The convoluted path from superstition to mystery
Review: In a world of leptons, quarks, muons, superstrings, 10 dimensions of space and an 11-dimensional theory called M theory -- it is hard to remember the electron was discovered just over a century ago. English physicist J.J. Thompson discovered the electron in 1897; since then, there has been an explosion of discoveries. For thousands of years, chemists thought of the world consisted of earth, air, fire and water. It was a theory offered by Empedocles, who lived about 2,500 years ago and was said to be able to control the winds and restore life to a woman who had been dead for 30 days. Once Aristotle endorsed the idea, chemists were stuck with it for nearly two and one-half millennia. Logically, if everything consists of four basic elements -- then, by properly mixing it would be possible to make gold and every other useful item. For example, when mercury ore was heated, a pool of liquid metal was formed. Transformations took place when substances were heated, dissolved, melted, filtered, and crystallized. The key was discovering the proper mixture of the four elements, then keep it secret. Mix tin and copper and the result was bronze, better than both tin and copper and looking a lot like gold. Wise men would have been foolish not to pursue such a promising start. However, it was a dead-end road, even though the ancients had endorsed it. Secrecy was the second crucial ingredient. Alchemists realized if everyone knew the secret of making gold, the social impact would be catastrophic. As a result, every alchemist literally began work based on zero knowledge of what works and what doesn't. Bad ideas were never rejected, good ideas were never shared. It took some real rebels, weirdos and geeks to upset more than two thousand years of error. One of the earliest was Paracelsus; the name he gave himself meant "greater than Celsus," a deservedly famous first century AD Roman physician. Paracelsus, according to one of his contemporaries, "lived like a pig and looked like a sheep drover. He found his greatest pleasure among the company of the most dissolute rabble, and spent most of his time drunk." This is the type of man who first questioned the wisdom of the ages. In an age when religious fundamentalism is becoming ever more terrible, Morris presents a fascinating story of how scientists went from absolute certainty about the world to tenuous uncertainty. It wasn't too long ago that scientists were looking ever deeper into the furthest reaches of the universe; within the past decade, they have discovered that 96 percent of the universe is invisible and for all intents and purposes unknown. Science is the process of uncertainty. It's a lonely, dangerous path of inquiry to follow. The English condemned the man who discovered oxygen as a dangerous radical; the French guillotined the leading scientist of his era, because he didn't fit in with the certainties of revolutionary France; the Russian who came up with the Periodic Table of the elements survived only because of the Czar's protections; and the Nazis would have executed the greatest physicist of the past century because he was Jewish. Care to be a scientist? It takes guts. Morris outlines the risks, dangers and rewards of overthrowing an ancient orthodoxy with skill, humour and insight. Without people who have the courage to challenge the old, accepted and true, our lives would be ruled by sorcery, superstition and suspicion. In brief, it's a wonderful look at how modern thought came to be modern.
Rating:
Summary: A mellifluous read
Review: Like a well written piece of classical music, the story of early chemistry bears telling and retelling. Each interpretation brings the emotions and the feeling of its author. The written music is the same, the pleasure of listening to it comes from who does the playing.
Richard Morris would have made a great conductor. His interpretation of early chemistry is one of the most enjoyable I read. Read it together with Paul Strathern's "Mendeleyev's Dream" and Oliver Sacks' "Uncle Tungsten". You'll feel you have personally met Paracelsus, Lavoisier and Boyle.
Rating:
Summary: Humanity's understanding of matter.
Review: This book was very entertaining, and balanced as well. The author managed to keep a decent balance between the alchemy/chemistry/physics topic and the alchemist/scientist that used it to further explain a property of matter. Dr. Morris begins with Aristolean alchemy and progresses to string theory, giving an overview along the way, as well as amusing anecdotes. It should be noted that whether through an abundance of historical documentation or simply because of personal preference, it seems the author tended to favor anecdotes/mini-biographies of some scientists over others, like Boyle, Cavendish, Rutherford, and Bohr. While this didn't detract from the book, it is worthy of note. In summation, this book lays out the progression of understanding matter from mystic Aristolean alchemy to the latest multidimensional theoretical models, and the scientists who got science to the point it is at now. I recommend this book highly for the non-scientist, as well as the scientist who is a little light on his scientific history. There is also a decent bibliography with sufficient documentation for primary source checking.
Rating:
Summary: Chemistry for the Common Man
Review: This was a very interesting book that was packed full of interesting facts. Richard Morris tells the story of chemistry's evolution in a unique manner. He takes the lives of each scientist who had a significant contribution to this growing branch of science and tells about them and their discoveries. However, he does not make it impossible to understand but makes it intersting and informative. Morris writes for the common man to understand and enjoy. Each scientist's life is presented in a clear manner with their important achievements and discoveries. They are all connected with eachother in a complex fashion that Morris makes clear for the reader.
An interesting aspect of this book was that Morris made the scientists seem like real people, not the heroes and untouchable geniuses we often make them. Morris makes the study of chemistry through the ages tangable and close to home. The scienists could be your next-door neighbor the way he describes their lives. They have petty arguments and marital problems just like the common man. This makes the study of chemistry something that is more friendly and something to be understood by everyday people, not just the intelligent men who studied it and made discoveries for it.
This book was highly enjoyable and I recommend it to anyone interested in the evolution of chemistry. Or anyone mildly interested in the structure of chemistry. It is a clear and easily understood book that is a fast read and interesting. The concepts are presented clearly and the topic is well-developed. The chapters are short and broken up into small sub-chapters making it faster to read. Morris is very fond of footnotes and uses them quite frequently to help the reader understand different concepts. This is a very reader-friendly book and an intersesting read.
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