Otto Loewi, the German-born physiologist who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1936 for his work on the chemical transmission of nerve impulses, dreamed the design of an experiment to a hypothesis of chemical transmission that he had worked on 17 years earlier. Even though Strathern prose is pleasant and the content interesting, I prefer the former more direct approach. Rather, it is a lay reader's history of chemistry or, more broadly, scientific thought, from the ancient Greeks through the 19th century. 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.

He oozes contempt for the alchemists, and obsequiously sings the praises of any enlightened scientist who was so-to-speak ahead of his time. From ancient philosophy through medieval alchemy to the splitting of the atom, this is the true story of the birth of chemistry and the role of one man's dream. Complement Mendeleyev’s Dream with Margaret Mead’s existentially revelatory dream about the meaning of life and John Steinbeck’s prophetic dream about how the commercial media are killing creative culture, then revisit the science of what the brain actually does while we sleep. It is the history of this question which Paul Strathern tackles, and he brings to it two qualities unusual in the history of chemistry: readability and intelligibility. This is a great book on the history of chemistry and chemistry-makers; how chemistry became a branch of science.earlier, the French positivist philosopher Auguste Comte had pronounced that certain kinds of knowledge would remain forever beyond the reach of science. The best part goes from chapter 11 until the end of the book: the lives and contribution of Lavoisier, Dalton, Berzelius, de Chancourtois and Newlands, key precursors of our hero and his masterpiece. Meyer’s doubts about the anomalies in his tables prevented him from making the leap of faith that Mendeleyev made and stuck to. 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?

August Kekulé, the principal founder of the theory of chemical structure, dreamt of “atoms gambolling before my eyes! The ancient Greeks speculated about earth, air, fire, and water; today we turn to the periodic table for more reliable information. His vivid, pacey style is equally present in his first full-length science book, “Mendeleyev’s Dream”, the story of how the Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleyev built upon 2,400 years of chemistry to construct the Periodic Table.

Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, European Union, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Republic of Croatia, Republic of the Congo, Reunion, Romania, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (U. Strathern's diverting style of writing fleshes out the scientists who labored to define what the elemental building blocks of the universe are. Born in Siberia as one of anywhere between 11 and 17 children — biographical accounts differ, as infant mortality rate in the era was devastatingly high — he was immersed in tragedy from an early age. The book guides us through the labyrinth of dead ends and discoveries from Thales of Miletus in ancient Greece, through Mendeleyev of mid 19th century Czarist Russia that precipitated the identification and classification of the known elements. This gave birth alchemy, which became an important practice for humanity as it tried to figure out what matter was.

Strathern's "Big Idea" series of scientific biography and his "Philosophy in 90 Minutes" series, both designed for the novice, prepared him well for the task of relating the personalities and philosophies of these elemental discoverers to the nonscientist. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. His father was a professor of fine arts, philosophy, and politics, but grew blind and lost his teaching position. In the Prologue, Strathern sets the scene in Mendeleyev’s country house on a cold winter’s day of February 1869. The dream, of course, was just a function of what the human brain normally does during sleep — organizing and consolidating the ideas, images, and bits of information that occupy our waking hours.

The author's fascinating accounts of the peculiar early-modern "scientists" really closer to the medieval alchemists Paracelsus and Giordano Bruno (the latter Galileo's unlucky predecessor before the Inquisition) show how quackery can combine with real insight to make notable advances in science. Beginning in the early 17th century, men like Robert Boyle began to put chemistry on a footing we would today recognize as scientific. Despite this work's many merits, Strathern's authorial alchemy hasn't managed to turn his base elements into gold.