Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements

by John Emsley

What is the most common element in the universe? Can you name the noble gases? Everything we see around us is made of chemical elements, but most of us know little about them.
Penned by award-winning science writer John Emsley, Nature's Building Blocks explains the what, why and wherefore of the chemical elements. Arranged alphabetically, from Actinium to Zirconium, it is a complete guide to all 115 of those that are currently known, with more extensive coverage of
those elements we encounter in our everyday life. The entry on each element reveals where it came from, what role it may have in the human body, and the foods that contain it. There are also sections on its discovery, its part in human health or illness, the uses and misuses to which it is put,
and its environmental role. Readers discover that the Earth consists of around 90 elements, some of which are abundant, such as the silicon and oxygen of rocks and soils, while some are so rare that they make gold seem cheap. Our own bodies contain about 30 elements, some in abundance, some in trace
amounts; some vital to our health, and some that are positively harmful. A list of the main scientific data, and outline properties, are given for every element and each section ends with an "Element of Surprise," which highlights some unexpected way in which each element influences our everyday
life.
Both a reliable reference source and a high browsable account of the elements, Nature's Building Blocks offers a pleasurable tour of the very essence of our material world.

Genres: Science, Chemistry, Nonfiction, Reference, Nature, Popular Science, Science Nature

560 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2001

About the author

Popular science writer and chemist

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read through this, I feel like it's a great companion book to The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean.
Both books show the elements in a way that is more readily digestible than any chemistry professor will in a lecture.
Well, more than any I've ever had, anyways.
This book also goes into a history of elements, much like The Disappearing Spoon, which I enjoyed immensely.
If you have a love of chemistry or would just like to understand the make up of the universe you live in a little more, this is a book I highly recommend.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements by John Emsley has a beautiful cover. It's a guide to the periodic table that's laid out like the London A to Z. It sounded like a nifty idea to me so I decided to give the book a try.

I have to say that after working my way through the the letter A entries, I decided that alphabetical just isn't the most logical way to read a casual book about the periodic table. The problem is that the table as it's currently laid out by atomic weight makes sense. Sure the names aren't in alphabetical order but one can see how the elements are related to each other and why certain groups of elements behave the way they do. Taken out of their placement, that building logic is missing and the elements described seem random, illogical, confusing and baffling.

The other problem I had with the book is its one size fits all approach to the elements. Every element is described by the same rubric (things like toxicity, medical uses, and so forth) whether or not everything in the rubric applies. Shoot, I might as well have been reading a spreadsheet with the boxes ticked for different categories.

The book could have been better, even still kept in alphabetical order, if the different pieces of the periodic were color coded on the edges of the pages, the book would be useful for readers expecting that order. It would also give a good visual for readers learning about the table and elements.

The other thing I would have done differently is do away with the rubric or at least make it more flexible. Personally I would have gone with paragraphs with sidebar of the most interesting chemical features or trivia. Color photographs would have been good too. Or even some illustrations!

[Dennis Littrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating tour de force

This is an outstanding piece of work aimed at the intellectually and scientifically curious that also works as a nice reference book on the elements and the Periodic Table.

After a short introduction filled with some top ten tables (e.g., top ten elements in the earth's crust: "Oxygen 466,000" parts per million, "Silicon 277,000" p.p.m., etc.) Emsley spins out a chapter per element in alphabetical order beginning with Actinium and ending with Zirconium. Each chapter is filled with interesting and specific information about the element in question. In the chapter on carbon, for example--understandably one of the longest in the book (7 pages), since carbon is so important to us and so plentiful--there are sections entitled "COSMIC ELEMENT, HUMAN ELEMENT, FOOD ELEMENT, MEDICAL ELEMENT, ELEMENT OF HISTORY, ELEMENT OF WAR, ECONOMIC ELEMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL ELEMENT, CHEMICAL ELEMENT," and "ELEMENT OF SURPRISE."

The idea is to place each element in terms of its importance in these various categories as well as giving all sorts of information about its history, abundance and uses. In the ELEMENT OF SURPRISE section Emsley usually comes up with something unusual or striking about the use or the history of the element. In the case of iron, Emsley cites a research project that "fertilized" a barren part of the ocean west of the Galapagos Islands with iron sulfate with dramatic results: "Within a week this barren span of ocean bloomed and turned green with plankton, proving that it was simply lack of this metal that was limiting their growth." (p. 211)

Included in the sections are tables showing how much of the element is in the human body (in the blood, in bones and tissues), and how much is in the environment (in the crust, in the soil, in sea water, and the atmosphere). A third table gives the element's chemical symbol, its atomic number, its atomic weight, melting point, boiling point, density and oxides, if any.

There is a final chapter on the history and development of the Periodic Table, which I found interesting. One of Emsley's strengths is his ability to make the material just so fascinating to read. Part of that comes from his obvious love for his subject matter. He is so good he makes me regret that I did not study chemistry when I was young. Just reading this book has opened my eyes to some of the ideas of chemistry and has greatly improved my knowledge of what the elements are like and how they interact with one another to form various molecules as they become familiar and not so familiar substances.

Here are examples of some of the fascinating details that can be found in the book:

"Iridium is the most corrosion-resistant metal known... The standard metre bar, kept in Paris, is made of a platinum-iridium alloy (90% platinum and 10% iridium) but this was superseded as the basic unit of length in 1960 by a line in the atomic spectrum of krypton (see p. 213)."

And on page 213 we find that "The standard was changed in 1983 to one based on the speed of light in a vacuum, a metre being the distance light travelled in 1/299 793 458th of a second, as measured by a light beam from a helium-neon laser."

"Inside the body, iron, as iron(III), is strongly bound by transferrin, a protein found in serum and other secretions... Transferrin binds iron tightly and, because it does so, it acts as a powerful antibiotic simply by denying this essential metal to any invading bacteria which need iron to multiply. As soon as our body registers a bacterial invasion, it produces more transferrin to mop up any free iron in the blood stream and 'hide' it in the liver." (p. 206)

"Neodymium-iron-boron (NIB) magnets are so powerful that those handling them must wear protective glasses--they fly together with such force that they can shatter and send splinters flying in all directions. At times young people have used these industrial magnets to attach ornaments to their cheeks by putting one of the small magnets on the inside of the mouth. However, the magnet and ornament have then proved impossible to pull apart, sometimes necessitating a visit to a hospital for surgical removal." (p. 270)

I have two suggestions for the next edition: (1) provide an index; (2) give us the value of the elements in terms of current (or relative) dollars or Euros. It would be fun to compare. (I realize that in some cases, the value of an element because it is so rare or not used for anything would be just an educated guess, but that's okay.)

Another interesting book by John Emsley is The Thirteenth Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus (2000). See my review.

--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book during my chemistry phase I had in elementary school. I carried this book around with me to random places, including the sandpit in our backyard. I didn't understand much of it but it gave me lots of fuel to daydream about (I remember coming to the conclusion a half-life meant how long you had after being exposed to whatever had the half-life). After taking a low-level chemistry course in college my curiosity was piqued again, and I decided I'd read through this over the months, now that I could properly understand it, starting from hydrogen on up. It's closing a mundane chapter in my life! It was pleasant, but always felt like I set off on a mysterious task to read a reference book from start to finish. The reviews that say this is a quirky fun read for laymen everywhere were exaggerating. It is readable and understandable, but not really fit for reading all the way through like I did. (However, if you want to cheat, you can go ahead and read each every element's "Element of Surprise" section and the wonderful end section on the history of the periodic table, but that's probably only a collective 50 pages). I probably should've skipped all the lanthanides…

Some anecdotes of my young chemistry phase for no particular reason:

— The cover of this book has a quote from Oliver Sacks on the front that I would read out loud repeatedly, and is permanently engrained in my mind. A marvel, sheer delight. Oliver Sacks. It would be the first thing I'd think of when I'd hear "Oliver Sacks", and it took me a while to actually find out what he was famous for (let alone read any of his books).

— My grandma took young-me to a college bookstore to buy me a full priced chemistry textbook. (It's actually the college I'm going to now. More closure!) I remember having some revelations, like how radioactive explosions chain-reacted, but in other ways I wasn't so hot. I remember wondering exactly what the white bars that connected atoms together in the pictures of molecules were made of. I also liked to quiz my grandma about chemical symbols. Thanks grandma!

— I had a small metal case that I put my "chemistry" things in, mostly bathroom cabinet items, food coloring, etc. I'd take it to boring church things and mix things together over bathroom sinks in a plastic test tube to try to get things to fizz. I did get something to fizz once (that wasn't the usual vinegar + baking soda) and I felt very proud.

— I remember (in church, once again) drawing atoms (with color-coded neutrons, protons, and electrons) and another kid behind me saw what I was doing and said, "Wow, you must be smart." Positive reinforcement! It'll keep phases going much longer than anyone can stand.

[Grrlscientist · Rating 2 out of 5]

Because 2011 is the International Year of Chemistry, I have been searching for a book about chemistry that I could recommend to the general public. After learning about or browsing through several such books, I chose what I thought would be the best amongst them. Written by award-winning science writer and former chemistry lecturer, John Emsley, I thought I had found a real winner in his completely revised and updated book, Nature’s Building Blocks: An A-Z guide to the elements (New Edition) [originally published in 2001, completely revised & updated for publication in October 2011: Oxford University Press].

This trade paperback is an alphabetical treatment of each element in the periodic table from Ac (Actinium) to Zr (Zirconium). It devotes 612 of its 699 pages to common elements, such as hydrogen (13 pages), and to rarities like unbipentium (1 sentence) — an element that is predicted to exist although no one has (yet) attempted synthesise it. Beginning with the origin of each element’s name and how to pronounce it, the author organises specific details about the elements into a number of subsections: cosmic element; element of life; food element; dangerous element; medical element; element of history; element of war; economic element; environmental element; chemical element; and element of surprise. Of these, it’s probably the “element of surprise” subsection that will appeal to most readers because it mentions strange quirks of individual elements such as titanium’s ability to make lipstick stay put; the use of antimony pills as laxatives (and those pills being passed from one generation to the next, eww!) in the Middle Ages; and bending indium metal causes it to emit high-pitched squeaks.

Even though I love the idea of this book and I wanted very much to love this particular book, I admit I am disappointed with it. On one hand, this book is an interesting compendium about each element in the periodic table, but on the other hand, the book has many flaws that are inexcusable, especially in a “completely revised and updated” edition. For starters, the writing is uneven; sometimes charming and informative, other times, dry, repetitious and uninspired. I was quite surprised by the overly brief and generally confusing discussion of that most important topic in chemistry, electron orbitals (Pp. 648–649). I was also frustrated by the first paragraph in the subsection, “Atoms and Elements” (p. 635), which is so disjointed that I am still not clear what was its intended message.

The patterns that the early alchemists and scientists used to construct the periodic table of the elements are obscured by the book’s alphabetical presentation. This problem could have been somewhat alleviated if each element was accompanied by a diagram that clearly shows its position in the periodic table, and also includes its atomic weight and valence(s). Such an illustration would have helped the reader build a mental image of how the elements fit together: without that critical framework, they collapse into a sea of overwhelming details and trivialities — probably much like what the early (al)chemists were faced with.

The pattern of presentation in the book is inconsistent. For example, there is a short introductory section to the lanthanoids (the first row of the f-block elements; atomic numbers 57–71) but inexplicably, there is nothing similar for the actinoids (the second row of the f-block elements; atomic numbers 89–102).

I was annoyed by the author’s uncritical mention of “arsenic bacteria” (p. 55) without even the faintest hint of the huge controversy that rightly ensued after publication of that sloppy bit of research [doi:10.1126/science.1201482]. This is especially irritating in view of the astonishing inaccuracies in this book that appear to result from an incomplete knowledge of the latest scientific research. For example, when the author discusses mercury, he states that “ocean fish take up mercury, with tuna and sword fish concentrating it to levels 100,000 times those of the surrounding seawater, but this does not render them unsafe to eat [italics mine].” (p. 320) This comment is in stark contrast to recommendations published in 2004 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the USA, which warns “women who may become pregnant, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and young children” should not eat “Shark, Swordfish, King Mackerel, or Tilefish because they contain high levels of mercury”. These same recommendations are likewise echoed by the UK’s Food Standards Agency.

Another inaccuracy is in the iridium subsection, “Element of Surprise”, where the author makes the surprising assertion that the Yucatan meteorite “was not the main reason why the Cretaceous period came to an end. It is now thought that this might have been just one of several contributing factors.” (p. 254) This statement is in direct conflict with the conclusion of an international panel of scientists who, after reviewing more than 20 years of scientific evidence, specifically endorsed the asteroid hypothesis as the cause of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event [doi:10.1126/science.1177265].

In conclusion, even though parts of this book are well-written and the book as a whole has the potential to be useful, I question its accuracy. Because I am an evolutionary ecologist, I am particularly sensitive to errors that relate to biology, but there may be more errors that I didn’t notice.


NOTE: Originally published at The Guardian on 14 September 2011.

[Any Length · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the book which made a potentially rather stuffy and boring subject rather interesting through the inclusion of interesting stories surrounding the individual elements.
The narrator Kevin Scollin on the other day was disappointing as he made no effort whatsoever to pronounce words in different languages the way they should be pronounced. Each element was named by it's English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese native name. But Kevin Scollin just read them out as if they were English words, not bothering in the slightest to make them sound like they are supposed to. In one instance he read the word wrong altogether, reading that "Stickstoff" came from the German word "erstricken" instead of "ersticken". The latter meaning to die of lack of oxygen the former could only be understood to mean someone died from knitting too much. It doesn't take much time to ask Google or youtube for the correct pronunciation of any word in any language. But to just read out the words in the most english way possible is plain lazy. Not to read even the slightest native way shows the reader has no knowledge of other languages. Sad. Otherwise a very good and informative book that sheds light on the mystery of the periodic table.

[Mike Parkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like reading the dictionary in order is probably not the best way to learn a language, I’ve learned that reading about the elements one after the other is not the best way to learn chemistry. However, this is a much better book than the other element-by-element chronicle I read (“The Elements” by Theodore Gray) and, digested in small chunks, it does provide a wealth of interesting information. I do recommend reading about the elements in order of increasing atomic weight, versus alphabetical order (as this book is set up), to add a bit more of a structural framework.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book goes through all of the chemical elements known as of the year 2001. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the history and facts and oddities presented about each element. I wish that the section about the superheavy elements was more up to date and accurate, but this is probably my favorite book!

[JCW · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for trivia and other specifics on the elements. Naturally some elements receive more detail than others because some elements are just plain boring and have niche uses. Cool book to read up on as someone who is interested in chemistry.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating! Lots of typos though....

[Sara Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want some interesting information about the elements you study in Chemistry, this book is a great resource.

[György · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is one of the basics that must be read. Despite that it's not easy to "store".

[Quinton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my favorite book on the chemical elements. I think it's the most informative such book for the casual reader (obviously CRC Handbooks may have more information but those are massive). This is more of a reference work and not really a narrative, though, so don't get the wrong idea.

I think what I most like is that it explains the historical background/discovery, the industrial applications, and the biological relevance (if any). It's sort of like if you took all the Wikipedia pages for the various elements and converted them into a more concise and standard format. I could of course imagine a better book with more information and better presentation, but realistically this is a pretty good book for practical purposes and it's a good size so it's not unwieldy or impractical for casual reading.

[Robert Sparrenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a guy having a chemistry degree I really enjoyed this one. I rather enjoyed the alphabetical listing of the elements. Grouping them as in the periodic table would have been another way but I enjoyed jumping around a bit.
The facts and strange things about some of the elements was interesting. One of the best things was how some of these elements were discovered. Some of these guys and gals were using some crude equipment and managed to put it together. Amazing to say the least. Good read for a casual chemistry fan as well.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is enjoyable to read because information on each element is narrated in sections: the human element, the food element, medical, war, history, economic... each category describes interesting trivia about the element as it exists in the human body, as it exists in food, medicinal use -both modern and ancient times, war, historical trivia, anecdotal records, etc... if you love knowing about the building blocks of life as I do, this book will be a staple and continual useful reference.

[Martin Witchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's an interesting and entertaining book for anyone who would like to dip in and out of learning more about the elements that make up our day-to-day existence (and some that don't as well). The author knows his stuff and puts fascinating information about every element into this tome. From Actinium to Yttrium, its a browsers paradise. Learn about the weird, wonderful and mundane uses for all the known elements including the bizarre and often fleeting transuranic elements. Highly Recommended.

[Theodosia of the Fathomless Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meticulous written and therefor astonishingly informative the ceaseless knowledge of the Periodic Table nevertheless becomes a little straining - if rarely. Recommended instantly to anyone with interest in the elements.
Note: The afterword is even better!


...

In case anyone is wondering, yes, I know I do sound like Kirkus Reviews.

[Brad Belschner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buckets of fun! There's a chapter for each one of the elements, describing its history, its unique properties, its conventional use, and some random tid bits about it. This should be required reading for any chemistry class.

[Ints · Rating 5 out of 5]

Traki labs un informatīvs gabals. Tikai nedaudz garlaicīgs, ar retzemju metāliem vispār bija copy paste. Ja interesē uz ātru roku uzzināt ko vairāk par ķīmiskajiem elementiem, to ietekmi uz cilvēku, pielietojumu tehnoloģijās, šī ir tā grāmata, kurā informāciju meklēt.

[Melvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book talks about every detail of all the elements and some of the undiscovered ones. It talks about the history, applications, medical uses, and other things of every element. This is one of my most favorite book on the elements.

[Raymond · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book detailing the everyday uses and history of each element of the periodic table. Mozart really died from antimony poisoning? Brilliant.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not even going to pretend that I read the whole thing (the library needs it back before 2009). Definitely one to purchase.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun as hell. Will make you wince with glee.

[Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reading for the curious individual who has little time for extending periods of reading.

[Arlen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly readable. Interesting and a good way to explore the economic and historical impact of chemistry.

[Thomas Müller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valuable. Some surprising gems, like NIckelTItaniumNAvalOrdinanceLaboratory Nitinol which I now tortured all medical students rotating through our firm with...Genius !

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Browsed the A elements, and the B elements. Dry but interesting.

[Sébastien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful and engaging.

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so interesting that I would marry it. But I just got married so I guess I can't.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emsley in his element.