A Chemical History Tour. Picturing Chemistry From Alchemy To Modern Molecular Science

"With the original and often startling images of chemistry, Arthur Greenberg makes the history of science come to life. A remarkable, witty book!" - Roald Hoffmann, PhD, Nobel Laureate "Chemistry has perhaps the most intricate, most fascinating, and certainly most romantic history of all the sciences. Arthur Greenberg's A Chemical History Tour. Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modem Molecular Science provides an entirely new sort of history, a dramatic journey in which he transports us through more than a hundred scenes or episodes from the earliest beginnings of alchemy to the latest in quantum mechanics and transmutation. Dr. Greenberg's essays - delightful, learned, quirky, highly personal, and richly illustrated with contemporary drawings (many of great rarity and beauty) - provide a kaleidoscope of intellectual landscapes, bringing the experiments, the ideas, and the human figures of chemistry's past intensely alive." - Dr. Oliver Sacks, author of Awakenings About the cover art... The artwork on the cover of this book is from an egg tempera painting (original in full color; author's private collection) signed in 1845 and is a version of a 17th century work by David Teniers the Younger (J. Read, Prelude to Chemistry, The MacMillan Co., New York, Plate 29; J. Read, The Alchemist in Life, Literature, and Art, Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., London, 1947, Plate 21 and pp. 72-79). It has some mischief in it: the leg of the table has a mouth and an eye reminiscent of a tortoise or dragon - both potent chemical symbols. The painting is signed "las voy" ("les noy" or similar) with some symbols and we do not know the identity of the artist. To view the artwork within the book, visit us at www.wiley.com/chemicalhistory