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Periodic Tales
- A Cultural History of the Elements, From Arsenic to Zinc
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
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Publisher's summary
Like the alphabet, the calendar, or the zodiac, the periodic table of the chemical elements has a permanent place in our imagination. But aside from the handful of common ones (iron, carbon, copper, gold), the elements themselves remain wrapped in mystery. We do not know what most of them look like, how they exist in nature, how they got their names, or of what use they are to us. Unlocking their astonishing secrets and colorful pasts, Periodic Tales is a passionate journey through mines and artists' studios, to factories and cathedrals, into the woods and to the sea to discover the true stories of these fascinating but mysterious building blocks of the universe.
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- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Human history has seen many surprising and profound turning points. The ways that humans learned to use raw materials to create activity and resources set the stage for the most compelling and life-altering phase of the modern era, the Industrial Revolution. Born during this time on different continents but connected by similar interests, two men indelibly marked their generation and those that followed with their genius and foresight. This audiobook covers the war of currents and the individual lives of Tesla and Edison.
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Arduous
- By Hasbro on 10-22-18
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The Most Powerful Idea in the World
- A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention
- By: William Rosen
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning author William Rosen tells the story of the men responsible for the Industrial Revolution and the machine that drove it: the steam engine.
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A Revelation about a Revolution
- By Roy on 08-01-10
By: William Rosen
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Bill Bryson has been an enormously popular author both for his travel books and for his books on the English language. Now, this beloved comic genius turns his attention to science. Although he doesn't know anything about the subject (at first), he is eager to learn, and takes information that he gets from the world's leading experts and explains it to us in a way that makes it exciting and relevant.
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The Only Book I reread imediatley after reading
- By Andrew on 11-09-09
By: Bill Bryson
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Isaac the Alchemist
- Secrets of Isaac Newton, Reveal'd
- By: Mary Losure
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Before Isaac Newton became the father of physics, an accomplished mathematician, or a leader of the scientific revolution, he was a boy living in an apothecary's house, observing and experimenting, recording his observations of the world in a tiny notebook. As a young genius living in a time before science as we know it existed, Isaac studied the few books he could get his hands on, built handmade machines, and experimented with alchemy.
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Excellent! Very informative and fun!
- By Puppy on 07-08-17
By: Mary Losure
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American Eclipse
- A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World
- By: David Baron
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In the scorching summer of 1878, with the Gilded Age in its infancy, three tenacious and brilliant scientists raced to Wyoming and Colorado to observe a rare total solar eclipse. One sought to discover a new planet. Another - an adventuresome female astronomer - fought to prove that science was not anathema to femininity. And a young megalomaniacal inventor, with the tabloid press fast on his heels, sought to test his scientific bona fides and light the world through his revelations.
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Just OK.
- By Melanie A Hwalek on 09-18-17
By: David Baron
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Energy
- A Human History
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. Rhodes looks back on five centuries of progress, through such influential figures as Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, Benjamin Franklin, Herman Melville, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford.
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No more accents, please!
- By Ned Gulley on 08-30-18
By: Richard Rhodes
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Uranium
- War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World
- By: Tom Zoellner
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
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Uranium is a common element in the earth's crust and the only naturally occurring mineral with the power to end all life on the planet. After World War II, it reshaped the global order---whoever could master uranium could master the world. Marie Curie gave us hope that uranium would be a miracle panacea, but the Manhattan Project gave us reason to believe that civilization would end with apocalypse.
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GREAT book, awful narration
- By Carolyn on 03-30-09
By: Tom Zoellner
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The White Road
- Journey into an Obsession
- By: Edmund de Waal
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Extraordinary new nonfiction, a gripping blend of history and memoir, by the author of the award-winning and best-selling international sensation The Hare with the Amber Eyes. In The White Road, best-selling author and artist Edmund de Waal gives us an intimate narrative history of his lifelong obsession with porcelain, or "white gold".
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Marvelous and addictive
- By Elizabeth on 09-27-17
By: Edmund de Waal
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Starlight Detectives
- How Astronomers, Inventors, and Eccentrics Discovered the Modern Universe
- By: Alan Hirshfeld
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1929, Edwin Hubble announced the greatest discovery in the history of astronomy since Galileo first turned a telescope to the heavens. The galaxies, previously believed to float serenely in the void, are in fact hurtling apart at an incredible speed: the universe is expanding. This stunning discovery was the culmination of a decades-long arc of scientific and technical advancement.
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Experience the discovery of most of the universe.
- By Zachary Adams on 05-26-15
By: Alan Hirshfeld
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Stealing God's Thunder
- Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod and the Invention of America
- By: Philip Dray
- Narrated by: David Chandler
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning author Philip Dray delves into the lesser-known side of an American icon in Stealing God's Thunder. Benjamin Franklin, more often viewed as a statesman and founding father than as a man of science, challenged religion, science, and reason with his inventions. But in a time when everything was blamed on sin, it was the lightning rod, Franklin's attempt to control the heavens, that caused the greatest controversy.
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Fascinating
- By Abigail on 05-26-11
By: Philip Dray
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"It doesn't take an Einstein to understand modern physics," says Professor Wolfson at the outset of these 24 lectures on what may be the most important subjects in the universe: relativity and quantum physics. Both have reputations for complexity. But the basic ideas behind them are, in fact, simple and comprehensible by anyone. These dynamic and illuminating lectures begin with a brief overview of theories of physical reality starting with Aristotle and culminating in Newtonian or "classical" physics.
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Great primer for hard SF fans and physics laymen
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What listeners say about Periodic Tales
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Molly Brooks
- 02-14-17
meandering mindcandy
uses the periodic table as a support structure for a series of facts and anecdotes about science history. i enjoyed it as someone who didn't know anything about early alchemy, marie curie's daughter, the "radium craze" or the popcultural impact of chromium and neon on midcentury america. the emphasis is definitely on how scientific progress steers and fits into culture, not on hard science itself, so ymmv.
only major critique is that the narrator has a hard time with pronunciation, and several times in the middle of sentences there were a few seconds of sudden silence before a particularly uncommon word, like he had to stop and figure it out—which is fine, nobody knows every word, but i kept thinking my playback had stopped, so maybe edit the startled pause from the final audio.
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- Ethan
- 12-01-17
Amazing
This is an absolutely amazing book p.It talks about how the elements were discovered,they're used in society,they're history, religious use and much more.a great part of the book was when they were saying how alchemy lead to the finding of new elements and really got me enthused about alchemical science.
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- fonthillguy
- 11-21-15
Packed with facts and stories
This book was filled with interesting stories and facts about the chemical elements and the people who discovered and popularized them. Who knew that aluminum cutlery was once more prized than silver?
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- Matthew
- 11-17-15
Not Going to Win a Pulitzer, but ...
The Good – So this had been sitting in my wish list for some time. I would do the usual thing that some of you reading this do I’m sure; I’d occasionally listen to the sample and then I’d hem and haw and end up picking something else. The reviews, the subject matter and the sample just didn’t have enough to persuade me to use a whole credit to buy it. My cost vs. value analysis being; it just didn’t seem to be worth a whole nine-and-a-half dollars. Then one day it pops up on the Daily Deal and for five bucks I say; “hey, it’s not a full credit so why not?" I’m neither happy nor sad that I did so.
The Not So Good - While it is interspersed with some interesting stories and anecdotes it’s not what I would call a solid book. It’s adolescent in its presentation of the subject matter and while I agree that it needs to avoid being a chemistry textbook I would have appreciated a bit more science and a bit less story telling.
The Narration – Antony Ferguson was very good and that alone kept my interest from start to finish, especially through some of the slower portions.
The Overall – Periodic Tales is okay. It had some funny parts and some pretty interesting parts. I particularly liked the section about aluminum or, as our cousins across the pond would say/spell it; aluminium. (yes, he does talk about that little inconsistency in our common language). I’ll keep this book because the cost vs. value worked out and I may actually listen to it again. I book marked the sections I particularly enjoyed or learned something from so I can go back as reference later. I learned a few things I hadn’t know before which is my ultimate goal with any book. In closing I can say that I would not have been happy had I used a full credit for it and I would have been apoplectic had I paid full price.
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- The Shopper
- 08-12-16
Very Interesting if you like historical data
The narrator has a cute accent, the story was intriguing, and it was worth listening to the end.
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- Timothy A Shaw, Sr.
- 03-30-18
Interesting history of the Elements of life.
It is a good prelude to the next chapter of discovery of the history of our potential future.
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- Jack Frasier
- 08-20-18
very interesting cultural stance on the elements
really interesting, especially for memorizers. if you want cultural, historical, and anecdotal context for remembering the elements and their properties, this is a very good choice.
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- Jo Green
- 11-21-15
Slow.
This book was educational and wasn't presented in a manner that really kept my attention. Some stories were wonderful history lessons. I wasn't always sure if it was narration monotony, or the information itself that I lost focus on, but I listen as I drive, clean etc., and it was just background noise a few times. As it had been a Daily Deal it was worth the purchase though. I did learn, and retain, some of the things I heard.
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- Seth
- 03-29-16
Not for me...
Would you recommend Periodic Tales to your friends? Why or why not?
I'm not saying the book wasn't interesting. There were many interesting facts about the different elements, but it definitely didn't keep my attention very well. I listen to audiobooks while I drive, and I often drifted off in my head during this book, which I don't normally do when I listen to audiobooks. I'm not sure if that is due to the subject, or the narrator, or both, but something didn't work for me.
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- JRdG
- 11-01-15
A Definite Reread
I had learned of the Periodic Table in school science. This novel brings a whole new spin to the actual world behind the table.
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