CONTENTS

Front Cover Image

Reading Group Guide

A conversation with Sam Kean

Questions and topics for discussion

Sam Kean’s top-five favorite elements

Sam Kean’s suggestions for further reading

PART I
ORIENTATION: COLUMN BY COLUMN, ROW BY ROW

1. Geography Is Destiny

2. Near Twins and Black Sheep: The Genealogy of Elements

3. The Galápagos of the Periodic Table

PART II
MAKING ATOMS, BREAKING ATOMS

4. Where Atoms Come From: “We Are All Star Stuff”

5. Elements in Times of War

6. Completing the Table… with a Bang

7. Extending the Table, Expanding the Cold War

PART III
PERIODIC CONFUSION: THE EMERGENCE OF COMPLEXITY

8. From Physics to Biology

9. Poisoner’s Corridor: “Ouch-Ouch”

10. Take Two Elements, Call Me in the Morning

11. How Elements Deceive

PART IV
THE ELEMENTS OF HUMAN CHARACTER

12. Political Elements

13. Elements as Money

14. Artistic Elements

15. An Element of Madness

PART V
ELEMENT SCIENCE TODAY AND TOMORROW

16. Chemistry Way, Way Below Zero

17. Spheres of Splendor: The Science of Bubbles

18. Tools of Ridiculous Precision

19. Above (and Beyond) the Periodic Table

Acknowledgments and Thanks

Notes and Errata

The Periodic Table of the Elements

About the Author

Extraordinary acclaim for Sam Kean’s The Disappearing Spoon