Periodic Tales - Hugh Aldersey-Williams

Everything in the Universe is made of them, including you.

Like you, the elements have personalities, attitudes, talents, shortcomings, stories rich with meaning.

Here you’ll meet iron that rains from the heavens and noble gases that light the way to vice. You’ll learn how lead can tell your future while zinc may one day line your coffin. You’ll discover what connects the bones in your body with the White House in Washington, the glow of a streetlamp with salt on your dinner table.

Unlocking their astonishing secrets and colourful pasts, Periodic Tales is a voyage of wonder and discovery, showing that the elements’ stories are our stories, and their lives are inextricable from our own.