On 8 February 2016, Google celebrated Dmitri Mendeleev’s 182nd Birthday with a doodle. [74] See also Heilbron, John L. (2003). The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-974376-6. Simon, H. A. (1966-67). Introduction to B. M. Kedrov, “On the question of the psychology of scientific creativity,” Soviet Psychology, 5(2), pp. 24-25.

This, however, does not detract from the amazing story behind the distillation of modern chemistry out of the quagmire of beliefs and false starts - era after era - finally culminating in Mendeleyev's periodic table of the elements and the birth of modern chemistry. In Saint Petersburg his name was given to D. I. Mendeleev Institute for Metrology, the National Metrology Institute, [68] dealing with establishing and supporting national and worldwide standards for precise measurements. Next to it there is a monument to him that consists of his sitting statue and a depiction of his periodic table on the wall of the establishment. Dmitri Mendeleev". RSC Education. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018 . Retrieved 23 February 2021. In 1890 he resigned his professorship at St. Petersburg University following a dispute with officials at the Ministry of Education over the treatment of university students. [61] In 1892 he was appointed director of Russia's Central Bureau of Weights and Measures, and led the way to standardize fundamental prototypes and measurement procedures. He set up an inspection system, and introduced the metric system to Russia. [62] [63] Kiparsky, Paul. "Economy and the construction of the Sivasutras". In M.M. Deshpande and S. Bhate (eds.), Paninian Studies. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1991.In 1863, there were 56 known elements with a new element being discovered at a rate of approximately one per year. Other scientists had previously identified periodicity of elements. John Newlands described a Law of Octaves, noting their periodicity according to relative atomic weight in 1864, publishing it in 1865. His proposal identified the potential for new elements such as germanium. The concept was criticized, and his innovation was not recognized by the Society of Chemists until 1887. Another person to propose a periodic table was Lothar Meyer, who published a paper in 1864 describing 28 elements classified by their valence, but with no predictions of new elements. In fact, the 40% standard was already introduced by the Russian government in 1843, when Mendeleev was nine years old. [66] It is true that Mendeleev in 1892 became head of the Archive of Weights and Measures in Saint Petersburg, and evolved it into a government bureau the following year, but that institution was charged with standardising Russian trade weights and measuring instruments, not setting any production quality standards. Also, Mendeleev's 1865 doctoral dissertation was entitled "A Discourse on the combination of alcohol and water", but it only discussed medical-strength alcohol concentrations over 70%, and he never wrote anything about vodka. [66] [67] Commemoration Portrait of Mendeleev by Ilya Repin, 1885

Saint-PetersburgState University. "Museum-Archives n.a. Dmitry Mendeleev – Museums – Culture and Sport – University – Saint-Petersburg state university". Eng.spbu.ru. Archived from the original on 15 March 2010 . Retrieved 19 August 2012.

Scerri, Eric (2019). The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance (2nded.). Oxford University Press. pp.142–143. ISBN 978-0190914363 . Retrieved 13 December 2019. Helen Palmer (1998). "Inner Knowing: Consciousness, Creativity, Insight, and Intuition". J.P. Tarcher/Putnam. p. 113: "The sewing machine, for instance, invented by Elias Howe, was developed from material appearing in a dream, as was Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic table of elements" April 2011). "D. I. Mendeleyev Institute for Metrology". Vniim.ru. Archived from the original on 30 May 2017 . Retrieved 20 August 2012. Mendelevium, which is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Md (formerly Mv) and the atomic number 101, was named after Mendeleev. It is a metallic radioactive transuranic element in the actinide series, usually synthesized by bombarding einsteinium with alpha particles. Gerard I. Nierenberg (1986). "The art of creative thinking", Simon & Schuster, p. 201: Dmitri Mendeleev's solution for the arrangement of the elements that came to him in a dream.

Mendeleev published his periodic table of all known elements and predicted several new elements to complete the table in a Russian-language journal. Only a few months after, Meyer published a virtually identical table in a German-language journal. [39] [40] Mendeleev has the distinction of accurately predicting the properties of what he called ekasilicon, ekaaluminium and ekaboron ( germanium, gallium and scandium, respectively). [41] [42] This is a very good book. It not only made me understand the shift from alchemy to chemistry, the search for elements and the more or less bizarre people involved in both but also what is the trouble with most popularized accounts that claim to be about the history of science. Strathern is both a historian and a scientist. Most other authors are only half historians and half scientists, at least when they set out to write their books which turn out to be more or less sloppy products. Mendeleev, Dmitry Ivanovich; Jensen, William B. (2005). Mendeleev on the Periodic Law: Selected Writings, 1869–1905. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0486445717.Gordin, Michael D. (2015). Scientific Babel: How Science Was Done Before and After Global English. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226000299. Mendeleyev’s Dream sounds like a dense book, but Strathern keeps things light by writing about the many outrageous personalities who studied alchemy and chemistry over the years. One of the most entertaining chapters is about Paracelsus, a Swiss physician and alchemist from the 1500s. Paracelsus made important contributions to toxicology and medicine. He was also a quirky character with a flair for the dramatic. During one of his lectures, Strathern writes, “Paracelsus opened by announcing that he would now reveal the greatest secret in medical science. Whereupon he dramatically uncovered a pan of excrement.” (He’s a man after my own heart.) Barrett, D. (1993). The “Committee of sleep”: A study of dream incubation of problem solving, Dreaming, 3, pp. 115-122. When I was in highschool, I used to ask how the periodic table was made, invented or discovered. This books really answered everything. Though it was not really a one man invention, Mendeleyev puzzled all the pieces of previously discovered elements and brought them together - to answer old question 'What is the most basic element of nature?' was it water? Earth? Air? Fire? The discovery of the periodic table lays out the basic material composition of the universe and this has done a tremendous impact to the development of modern science. Very wonderful story. a b c Evseev, Anton (21 November 2011). "Dmitry Mendeleev and 40 degrees of Russian vodka". Science. Moscow: English Pravda.ru . Retrieved 6 July 2014.

Vincent Barnett, "Catalysing Growth?: Mendeleev and the 1891 Tariff." in W. Samuels, ed., A Research Annual: Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology (2004) Vol. 22 Part 1 pp. 123–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0743-4154(03)22004-6 OnlineMichael D. Gordin, "Measure of all the Russias: Metrology and governance in the Russian Empire." Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 4.4 (2003): 783–815. Having read Isaac Asimov’s “The search of the elements” during my early twenties this book didn’t surprise me. Even this book's subtitle has almost the same name: “The quest of the elements”. Most of the alchemist and scientist names sounded familiar and I remembered most of their contribution thanks to Asimov’s remarkable style: easy-to-read but powerful and engaging as a good novel. Even though Strathern prose is pleasant and the content interesting, I prefer the former more direct approach. Maybe being a professional biochemist and an inspirational writer helped Asimov achieve a better result in telling this fascinating story. PDF / EPUB File Name: Mendeleyevs_Dream_-_Paul_Strathern.pdf, Mendeleyevs_Dream_-_Paul_Strathern.epub Though Mendeleev was widely honored by scientific organizations all over Europe, including (in 1882) the Davy Medal from the Royal Society of London (which later also awarded him the Copley Medal in 1905), [52] he resigned from Saint Petersburg University on 17 August 1890. He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1892, [1] and in 1893 he was appointed director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, a post which he occupied until his death. [52] Loren R. Graham, Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Short History, Cambridge University Press (1993), p. 45