The Disappearing Spoon: and other true tales of madness, love, and the history of the world from the periodic table of the elements by
The periodic table of the elements is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of passion, adventure, obsession, and betrayal. These tales follow carbon, neon, silicon, gold, and all the elements in the table as they play out their parts in human history. The usual suspects are here, like Marie Curie (and her radioactive journey to the discovery of polonium and radium) and William Shockley (who is credited, not exactly justly, with the discovery of the silicon transistor)--but the more obscure characters provide some of the best stories, like Paul Emile François Lecoq de Boisbaudran, whose discovery of gallium, a metal with a low melting point, gives this book its title: a spoon made of gallium will melt in a cup of tea.
The Elements: the new guide to the building blocks of our universe by
Takes you on a gorgeously illustrated tour of the Periodic Table. Filled with fascinating information about the elements, their main compounds, and their principal uses, this authoritative yet accessible book, written by renowned popular-science writer Jack Challoner, makes "hard" science easy, interesting, and relevant to our daily lives.
The Periodic Table: a very short introduction by
The periodic table is an iconic symbol of science, and an understanding of it is essential to the physical sciences. In this volume the author presents an exploration of the periodic table in the physical sciences, considering the deeper implications of the arrangements of the table to atomic physics and quantum mechanics. He shows how this scientific knowledge about the elements was gained and considers its wider meaning. He introduces the significant figures in the development of the periodic table, as well as key ideas about early atomic theory and quantum mechanics. Also considered is the debated question of whether there is an optimal periodic table, and if so, what form it might take.
The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance by 
Periodic Tales by
In the spirit of 'A short history of nearly everything, ' an energetic and wide-ranging book of discovery and discoverers, of exploitation and celebration, and of superstition and science, all in search of the ways the chemical elements are woven into our culture, history, and language
Seven Elements That Have Shaped the World: an adventure of ingenuity and discovery by
Combining true stories from the worlds of history, science, and politics, describes how the use of seven elements--iron, carbon, gold, silver, uranium, titanium, and silicon--has changed the world for both the better and worse.
Chemical Elements by 