Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

Tracing the oddities of the history of chemistry. Salzberg examines cultural and political influences on the ideas of chemists. He follows the evolution of chemistry from the Stone Age beginnings of ceramics and metallurgy, through the rise and decline of alchemy, to the culmination of classical chemistry in the late nineteenth century. Chapters one through nine lead from prehistoric technology, through ancient and medieval science to the study of chemicals and reactions that resulted in the sixteenth century birth of scientific chemistry. Chapters ten through fifteen focus on key chemists such as Sala, Boyle, Black, Lavoisier, Dalton, Berzelius, Laurent, and Arrhenius as they developed the ideas that led to classical chemistry and the concepts of molecules, chemical reactions, homology, valence, and molecular formulas and structures, among others. Twenty illustrations enhance the text. Also included are six timelines and two maps to help readers understand the influences of early history on chemistry.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Introduction
• Ancient Technology: The Roots of Chemistry
• Hellenic Chemical Science
• The Hellenistic and Roman Eras: The Rise of Alchemy
• Islamic Alchemy
• Medieval and Renaissance European Artisans
• Medieval and Renaissance Alchemists and Natural Philosophers
• Medieval and Renaissance Medicine and Medical Alchemy
• The Information Explosion
• Changing the Frame of Reference: The Attack on the Scientific Establishment
• The First Chemists: Sala, Van Helmont, Boyle
• Phlogiston--The Last of the Old Theories
• Lavoisier and the Chemical Revolution
• Atomic Weights and Molecular Formulas
• Atomic Arrangements: Organic Chemistry
• The Divisible Atom

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Writing a readable and reasonably accurate one-volume history of chemistry is a difficult undertaking; this book meets the challenge well. In 15 chapters and 260 pages of text, it moves from early technology through classical science to alchemy, and then on to the rebirth of learning and the scientific revolution. Pneumatic chemistry and the phlogiston theory lead to Lavoisier's chemical revolution and the impressive developments of the 19th-century from Dalton's atomic theory to the divisible atom. The story concludes at the end of the 19th century. In terms of balance there is much emphasis on the earlier history of chemistry; only the last 80 pages are devoted to the story of chemistry from 1780 through 1900, in contrast with Aaron J. Ihde's authoritative The Development of Modern Chemistry (Ch, Jun'65), where only 60 pages out of 750 are devoted to early chemistry. Salzberg's book has appropriate illustrations, chapter references, and a bibliography that are designed to lead a novice reader onward, but are not comprehensive. Strongly recommended.