The chemical elements are the building blocks of life, but could you discuss the periodic table over the dinner table? Which elements put the blue into blu-ray and the lime into limelight? And do you know enough about antimony, arsenic, and aluminum to illuminate the bar with your elemental knowledge? This book presents the foundations of chemical knowledge, distilling the 50 most significant chemical elements into individual entries, each of 300 words and one picture. Divided into seven chapters, this volume includes the atomic details of the other 68 elements and the relationships of all 118, as well as biographies of the chemists who transformed scientific knowledge and unlocked the mysteries of life itself. Illustrated with explosive graphics, this book is the quickest way to know your arsenic from your europium.

Eric Scerri is a chemist and a leading philosopher of science specializing in the history and philosophy of the periodic table. He is the founder and editor in chief of the international journal Foundations of Chemistry and the author of The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance and A Very Short Introduction to the Periodic Table. He is a full-time lecturer in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California-Los Angeles. He lives in Los Angeles.