A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table.MICHAEL D. GORDIN While Dmitrii Mendeleev was making an organized system for understanding modern chemistry, the test of his world was disintegrating. Mendeleev lived primarily in the tumultuous period between the emancipation of Russian serfs in 1861 and the revolution of 1905. In these pages, Gordin, a professor of science and BuSsian history at Princeton University Princeton University, at Princeton, N.J.; coeducational; chartered 1746, opened 1747, rechartered 1748, called the College of New Jersey until 1896. Schools and Research Facilities , examines Mendeleev's life in the context of his times. Mendeleev's periodic table of elements, an icon of science, is an oddity odd·i·ty n. pl. odd·i·ties 1. One that is odd. 2. The state or quality of being odd; strangeness. oddity Noun pl -ties 1. in the scientific world, in which ideas and findings can become dated in just a year or two, says Gordin. He covers Mendeleev's best-known contribution to science, but the author concentrates on other contributions that include designing the Russian tariff of 1891, creating smokeless smoke·less adj. 1. Emitting or containing little or no smoke: smokeless factory stacks. 2. gunpowder gunpowder, explosive mixture; its most common formula, called "black powder," is a combination of saltpeter, sulfur, and carbon in the form of charcoal. Historically, the relative amounts of the components have varied. , consulting on oil development in Baku, and introducing the metric system metric system, system of weights and measures planned in France and adopted there in 1799; it has since been adopted by most of the technologically developed countries of the world. to the Bussian Empire. In the process, this book reveals Mendeleev's struggle to apply his orderly mind to a society virtually out of control. Basic, 2004, 364 p., b&w photos, hardcover, $30.00. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion