Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest for the Elements

In Mendeleyev's Dream, Paul Strathern has written a brilliant and deft history of chemistry's development up to the discovery of the Periodic Table by Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev. Yet, despite the book's title, Strathern's introduction to the life of this influential scientist doesn't come until the penultimate chapter. In doing this, Strathern indicates that the groundwork leading up to Mendeleyev's vision must be understood in order to fully realize its significance.

Beginning with the 6th century BC, Strathern introduces the origins of scientific thought and its connection to reasoning in philosophy, the predominant science of the age. This was also the stepping stone for the ancient Greek theory of four fundamental elements: earth, air, fire, and water. (This idea "was to prove one of the biggest blunders in human thought, and its effects were to be a catastrophe for our intellectual development.") The process by which these ancient precepts transformed into alchemy and the quest for the philosophers' stone was also one that brought about major discoveries and contradictions to prior beliefs, and was by no means shielded from the overwhelming religious forces and metaphysical superstitions of the day. Prior to the 16th century, many ideas were suppressed for going against the Church and others were seen as experimentation in the dark arts. It wasn't until that time that the separation of religion and science was established, a break from the old metaphysical constructs emerged, and, with the help of Copernicus's published work that placed the sun at the center of the universe, the scientific revolution began.

By the mid-19th century, there was increasing activity in the field of chemistry — the discovery of new elements was more frequent, and more writings on the subject were being published. The glut of information available was growing faster than the method by which to sort it. For years, chemists attempted to find standard ways of written communication, but this produced divergent frameworks of classification and, ultimately, confusion. Mendeleyev managed to solve this problem, and did so in a most unexpected fashion.

Strathern has laid an excellent path to the understanding of the evolution of chemistry and the important role of the Periodic Table. His style is entertaining and carries a swift rhythm that keeps pace with the outstanding amount of information covered. He does much in the way of explaining concepts in detail, but with enough simplicity for those lacking a scientific background. He also introduces the scientists behind the concepts and the personalities and circumstances that led to their discoveries.

The book is laid out more or less chronologically, but Strathern manages to make seamless any digressions to this format and peppers the timeline with tidbits of information, etymology of terms, and other points of historical significance. Mendeleyev's Dream is an adroit chronicle of a subject that would prove dry and pedantic under a lesser pen.

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