CHEM410: History of Chemistry

Absolute Zero by Tom Shachtman In a sweeping yet marvelously concise history, Tom Shachtman ushers us into a world in which scientists tease apart the all-important secrets of cold. Readers take an extraordinary trip, starting in the 1600s with an alchemist's air conditioning of Westminster Abbey and scientists' creation of thermometers. Later, while entrepreneurs sold Walden Pond ice to tropical countries -- packed in "high-tech" sawdust -- researchers pursued absolute zero and interpreted their work as romantically asdid adventurers to remote regions. Today, playing with ultracold temperatures is one of the hottest frontiers in physics, with scientists creating useful particles Einstein only dreamed of. Tom Shachtman shares a great scientific adventure story and its characters' rich lives in a book that has won a grant from the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Absolute Zero is for everyone who loves history and science history stories, who's eager to explore Nobel Prize-winning physics today, or who has ever sighed with pleasure on encountering air conditioning.

The Curious Life of Robert Hooke by Lisa Jardine In this lively and absorbing biography, Lisa Jardine at last does Hooke and his achievements justice. Illuminating London's critical role in the emergence of modern science, she rediscovers and decodes a great original thinker of indefatigable curiosity and imagination, a major figure in the seventeenth-century intellectual and scientific revolution.

The Road to Stockholm by István Hargittai This book introduces the process of selection of the laureates, discusses the ingredients for scientific discovery and for getting recognition. It reviews the decisive moments of scientific careers en route to the Nobel Prize, points to characteristic features of the laureates, the importance of mentors and venues in scientific careers and other components of success. It also covers some discoverers and discoveries for whom and for which the Nobel Prize never materialized.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard P. Feynman; Freeman J. Dyson (Foreword by) The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a magnificent treasury of the best short works of Richard Feynman--from interviews and speeches to lectures and printed articles.

Cathedrals of Science by Patrick Coffey Cathedrals of Science describes the way modern chemistry was actually built - by scientists who were sometimes all too human. Chemists - Svante Arrhenius, Walther Nernst, Gilbert Lewis, Irving Langmuir, Fritz Haber, Linus Pauling, Glenn Seaborg, Harold Urey, and others - appear in different combinations in its chapters, struggling to understand what was driving chemical processes, but not doing so selflessly.

The Rise and Decline of Colloid Science in North America 1900-1935 by Andrew Ede Offering a comprehensive account of the early history of colloid chemistry, Dr. Ede looks at the complex issues that led to the rise and sudden decline of the status of colloid research. The book prompts interesting questions about why the prestige of different branches of science rises and falls, the practice of scientific research in early twentieth-century America, and the future of chemistry as a scientific field.

Walther Nernst and the Transition to Modern Physical Science by Diana Kormos Barkan Primarily a scientific biography of Walther H. Nernst (1864-1941), one of Germany's most important, productive and often controversial scientists, this 1999 book addresses a set of specific scientific problems that evolved at the intersection of physics, chemistry and technology during one of the most revolutionary periods of modern physical science.

Magick, Mayhem, and Mavericks by Cathy Cobb A lively history of science that explains the concepts of physical chemistry. Having previously taught chemistry, Cobb (physics and mathematics, Aiken Preparatory School) sets out to portray the splendor and complexities of physical chemistry, and tell stories of its heroes and heroines. She uses analogy and example rather than mathematics, to be accessible to non-scientists.

Physical Chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling by John W. Servos John Servos explains the emergence of physical chemistry in America by presenting a series of lively portraits of such pivotal figures as Wilhelm Ostwald, A. A. Noyes, G. N. Lewis, and Linus Pauling, and of key institutions, including MIT, the University of California at Berkeley, and Caltech.