Chaper 19 DS summary

90 percent of the particles in the universe are hydrogen and the other 10 percent is helium, leaving the rest of the elements in the universe almost just a rounding error. Out of these elements, astatine is the rarest natural element. But this is a paradox, because you'd think that there would be less of the most radioactive elements because they decay so quickly, but there is actually more francium, which is more radioactive, than there is astatine. This is because of the two forces fighting inside an atom, the strong nuclear force (which is attractive) and the electrostatic force (which repels particles). When you get to a certain point the nuclei get too big for the nuclear force to hold onto and the atom decays. Interestingly enough, though, the lifespan on elements does not necessary constantly decrease as the seize of the nucleus gets bigger - scientists call these elements that actually are more stable than their predecessors the island of stability. There is a theory that Einstein developed that suggests that as the ratio of the number of protons and alpha approaches one, electrons fly faster and faster and may even reach the speed of light.

Ultimately, the way we see the periodic table, like a castle with turrets, is just one variation that we've grown accustomed to, but in regality there are hundreds even thousands of other ways we could have arranged the table that contains so much human history.

Chapter 18 DS summary

It is the job of every standards bureau to keep an exact measurement of everything and the international standard for this is right outside of Paris. One of the jobs of the BIPM is keeping the International Prototype Kilogram - the world's official kilogram made platinum and iridium. But because of the ridiculous nature of having standards set by physical objects that can be damaged or lost of gain a few atoms here or there, the standards for measurements have shifted towards things that can be emailed. Like a mater if now 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of light in any vacuum rather than a metal rod. And time is kept by a cesium clock that relies on separating and timing electrons falling between energy levels rather than a hypothetical distance around the sun. Although the scientific constant alpha, which is responsible for how closely bound electrons are, seems to not only be completely arbitrary and unexplainable as well as being responsible for the presence of life, but some scientists think that there may be evidence that it is actually changing. The idea that alpha may not actually be a constant completely changes the way scientists view the universe, especially in the context of the possibility of other life.

Chapter 17 DS summary

Not every scientific discovery has been exotic though. While at a pub in 1952, Glaser developed a theory about bubbles and tracking their movements. He first tried this in the lab with beers, although quickly switched to liquid hydrogen. Bubbles provide an excellent "net" across a large variety of lab experiments. Calcium, for instance, foams up and that principle has been instrumental in both the formation of limestone and the subsequent histories that go along with the existence of limestone caves etc. Scientists have often developed theories about specific bubbles in specific situations but scorned the study of them itself. Rutherford used bubbles to study radioactivity and develop the theory about alpha and beta decay. This idea about decay led to a much more accurate estimation of the age of the earth. During WWII Lord Rauleigh discovered that submarine propellers were being eaten away by the bubbles they were creating. Putterman found that sound waves can transmute bubbles into light, especially with noble gases in a study called sonoluminescence.

Chapter 16 DS summary

Extreme cold often causes elements to behave in completely unpredictable ways. The band of Englishman led by Robert Falcon that were determined to be the first to reach the south pole discovered this when not only having just discovered that the Norwegians had beat them by just a month but the return team found that the fuel that they had stored in tin-soldered containers had completely leaked out and all over the food supplies. All of them ended up dying because of this mishap but this showcases an interesting property. When tin gets extremely cold its atoms arrange themselves in different ways and when tin shifts into its weaker state in extreme cold a "white rust" is form and the tin crumbles and erodes away. Cold also brings up the idea that there are actually far more specific states of matter in the universe than our simple "solid, liquid, gas" deviation has accounted for.  For instance, when noble gases get forced into a solid state, even they will often start to bind with other elements. It wasn't until 2000 that Finish scientist were able to force argon into a solid compound. At extremely low temperatures there seems to be different rules for subatomic particles. Electrons will metamorphose in superconductors and whole elements themselves will begin to overlap in a state called coherence. Coherence can best be understood in the context of light and the way lasers work by coordinating the electrons jumping around in energy shells. But one thing that bugs scientists more than anything is the dual wave-particle nature of light and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle doesn't neatly able to the photons of light but when viewed as waves it is a little different. But that principle does able in the context of atoms getting cold enough to form the Bose-Einstein condensate that in theory could produce a single atom that had begun as thousands of separate ones.

Chapter 15 DS summary

William Crookes was elected to the Royal Society although he later almost got kicked out after releasing a paper that endorsed the pathological science of spiritualism. Pathological science pick out whatever "marginal and unlikely phenomenon" that appeals to them and amass scientific evidence for it, and once this has been done, the masses just have ammunition. The megalodon is a perfect example. Science discovered the shark teeth and discovered a great many things about it, although when people began to cite irrelevant evidence pointing towards the fact that it is still around it began to drift towards a pathological science. Fleischmann and Pons also provide an example of people wanting a result to be true that they ignore all the evidence to the contrary. This pair, after passing a current through a palladium electrode in a chamber of heavy water declared completely incorrectly that they had discovered cold fusion. When the rest of the scientific community essentially essentially came crashing together to prove them wrong, they completely lost their credibility and may have become known as some of the world's biggest frauds. In rare cases though, what seems like a pathological science at the start because it is so unbelievable, actually turns out to be legitimate. Rontgen discovered X-rays and valiantly spent weeks trying to prove himself wrong before he showed anyone.

Chapter 14 DS summary

Science has often been dictated by money and those with enough to afford all the equipment. But for centuries it was a more of a hobby than a profession and some, like Goethe wrote about science in their great literary works, completely unhindered by real, actual science. Goethe did make one contribution to the periodic table, albeit indirectly. Because of his prominence he was elected to choose a scientist for the open chair in the chemistry department of the University of Jena. Goethe chose J.W. Dobereiner who made significant progress in exactly weighing the elements and discovered that they often fit into groups of three, although this idea took hold and was carried a bit past where it was warranted. Maholy-Nagy later developed a theory about the difference between "forced obsolescence" and "artificial obsolescence" about the development of certain things in society. An example of artificial would be humans creating new things out of want and fads rather than need, like the Parker 51 pen that was wildly popular, even though it was just a pen. Science has often been used in literary works as in Twain's short story that characterizes Satan as made of radium. Lithium has also influenced literary works in a different way - after being prescribed to Lowell, whose life was being completely ravaged by bipolar disorder, Lowell began to get better although perhaps lithium deadened the part of him that was responsible for his literary genius.

Chapter 13 DS summary

At different points in time different elements have been used to both prevent the creation of counterfeit money as well as aid in creating the fake money itself. In an ancient legend King Midas was said to be able to turn anything into gold just by touching it. It is known understood that his kingdom had a lot of zinc and when zinc mixes with a normally bronze alloy it creates brass, which has a more golden color and would have appealed to humans' ever-insatiable desire for gold. 3 Irishman accidentally stumbled on a massive deposit of gold which caused a gold rush, although it turns out it was fool's gold. When tellurium combines with gold, it doesn't combine in whole number ratios and it creates calaverite (one of many products) which smells strongly of garlic. Because of everyone hoping to strike it rich supplies ran short and riots erupted although someone then discovered that they could actually melt the gold out of these rocks at low temperatures and the miners practically tore the town apart. Although both of these were honest mistakes, in the era of coin money, counterfeiters had an easier time than they do today by just alloying other coins. Now, though, the EU uses special ink that is treated with europium actually functions as a fluorescing dye that can only be seen under a special laser. Although elements have also held enormous value at certain points. Aluminum at one point was thought to be the most valuable element in the world until it was discovered how easy it was to refine and Hall, after founding the Aluminum Company of America successfully brought the price of aluminium down from $550 per pound to $18 per pound almost single handedly.