The Lost Elements – Marco Fontani, Mariagrazia Costa and Mary Virginia Orna

Thoughts: I skimmed large parts of this hefty book, sampling sub-chapters here and there to read more closely. An interesting look at a period in the history of chemistry: the few decades of searching for naturally occurring elements once the concept of the element had been clearly formulated, then the discovery of radioactivity, then accelerators and the manufacture of new elements. Also interesting to read about all the ways that false conclusions were arrived at and false beliefs clung to. A chemist might find this a really interesting read.

Fontani, Marco, Mariagrazia Costa, Mary Virginia Orna. 2015. The Lost Elements: The Periodic Table’s Shadow Side. Oxford UP.