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the last alchemist in Paris, and other episodes
1 online resource (257 pages) : illustrations (black and white).
This is a book about discovery and disaster, exploitation and invention, warfare and science - and the relationship between human beings and the chemical elements that make up our planet. Lars Öhrström introduces us to a variety of elements from S to Pb through tales of ordinary and extraordinary people from around the globe. We meet African dictators controlling vital supplies of uranium; 18th-century explorers searching out sources of precious metals; industrial spies stealing the secrets of steel-making. We find out why the Hindenburg airship was tragically filled with hydrogen, not helium; why nail-varnish remover played a key part in World War I; and the real story behind the legend of tin buttons and the downfall of Napoleon.
Cover -- Contents -- Preamble: The Periodic Table and the Da Vinci Code -- 1 Mr Khama is Coming to Dinner -- 2 From Bitterfeld with Love -- 3 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Airship -- 4 The Spy and the Saracen's Secret -- 5 Biopiracy: The Curse of the Nutmeg -- 6 Death at Number 29 -- 7 Blue Blooded Stones and the Prisoner in the Crystal Cage -- 8 Diamonds are Forever and Zirconium is for Submarines -- 9 Graphite Valley: IT in the Eighteenth-Century Lake District -- 10 The Emperor and Miss Smilla -- 11 Rendezvous on the High Plateau -- 12 The Last Alchemist in Paris -- 13 Pardon My French: Captain Haddock and the Sufferings of the Savoyards -- 14 Two Brilliant Careers -- 15 War and Vanity -- 16 When State Security was a Stinking Business -- 17 Bonaparte's Bursting Buttons: A Thin Story -- 18 I Told You So, Said Marcus Vitruvius Pollio -- 19 A Shiny Surface and a Tainted Past -- 20 The Actress and the Spin Doctor -- 21 Of Pea-Soup, Dangers of Coffee in the Morning, and the Test of Mr Marsh -- 22 To Take Back the Future -- Acknowledgments -- Bibliography -- References -- Index.
First published 2013 as The Last Alchemist in Paris.
Includes bibliographical references and index.