Best chemistry book ever!

Aunt Penny gave J this book for Christmas and it is awesome! "The Elements: a visual exploration of every known atom in the universe" by Theodore Gray is the perfect book to field a curious 9-year old son's questions about the elements of the periodic table - what does lithium LOOK like? How does plutonium differ from uranium? What ARE sodium and chlorine anyway? We are having a leisurely lunch at a nearby restaraunt, flipping through and chuckling at Theodore's tongue- in- cheek humor sprinkled throughout which makes this book not only dazzlingly beautiful (thanks Nick Mann, photographer) to look at but a joy to read. An excerpt from Plutonium had J spattering water as I read out loud while he was drinking: (talking about a Plutonium bomb not working correctly) "...This is called a fizzle, and while it might spread radiation over a wide area, it won't melt the target city as intended."

Each element's page shows its position in the periodic table, weight, density, atomic radius ( nice little diagram), crystal structure (another diagram), and three thermometer-like diagrams: electron filling order, atomic emission spectrum, and state of matter (melting, boiling temps). If you fan the pages our slightly the state of matter charts overlap and you can see patterns of melting points across the whole periodic table.

Finally, there is a fold-out detachable poster in the back that shows the periodic table using photographs of each element.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in visualizing the periodic table. It makes a great coffee table book and my son and I love it!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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