About this item

What links the Taj Mahal and our skeleton? Calcium. The Eiffel Tower and our blood? Iron. The salt on our fries and the street lamps that guide us home? Sodium. Everything in the known universe is made up of one of the 118 elements of the periodic table, and this book is the definitive illustrated guide. Every element is featured, their vital statistics given, their main compounds and uses explored, and their fascinating histories told. This book is authoritative and accessible, with a sense of wonder about the way in which the material world works.



About the Author

Jack Challoner

Always frustrated by lack of clarity in books he read as a child, Jack long felt the need to make the amazing things that science and technology have achieved accessible to a wide audience. After studying physics in London, he trained as a science and maths teacher, then worked at London's Science Museum, in the education department and in their flagship interactive gallery, Launch Pad. Jack left the museum in 1991 to write science and technology books, and to write and perform science shows in museums, libraries and schools. He's been doing all that ever since, with nearly forty books to his name. He also works as a consultant on other people's science books, and sometimes in television, helping to develop new ideas or work up existing ones. He is also a musician and singer, writing, producing and performing music. He lives in Bristol, England.



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