Asimov Isaac. Building Blocks of the Universe

NY: Abelard-Schuman, 1957. — 255 p.Asimov takes us on a guided tour of the periodic table and introduces us to the elements known as of the time the book was written.Introduction: The Hundred and One
Oxygen, the Element We Breathe
The Three States
Investigating the Invisible
Separating Air
Oxygen and a Half
Hydrogen, the Lightest Element
The Gas Earth Lost
Floating on High
Beware of the Spark
Fire into Water
Water’s Unstable Relation
Nitrogen, the «Lifeless» Element
The Suffocating Part of Air
The Usefulness of Doing Nothing
Putting Nitrogen to Work
In War and Peace
A Gas with an Odor
Laughing Gas
Helium, the Self-Sufficient Element
Discovery in Sunlight
The Safe Gas
The Lowest Zero of All
The First Inert Gas
The Lights of Broadway
Carbon, the Element of Life
The Rock that Burns
Home-made Coal
Opposites, Yet Twins
Millions of Compounds
The Air We Exhale
Gas Leaks and Automobile Exhausts
Silicon, the Element of the Soil
Taking Carbon’s Place
Silicon in Chains
Solids to Look Through
Variety!
Chlorine, the Green Element
War by Chemical
More Active than Oxygen
Salt-formers
Organic Chlorides
The Most Active Element of All
The Liquid Element
More Changes in the Drinking Water
Sulfur, the Yellow Element
Fire and Brimstone
Chemical Smells
The Useful Side of Brimstone
Automatic Doors
Phosphorus, the Element that Glows
Matches of Various Kinds
Flesh and Bone
The Favorite Poison
The Importance of Proper Freezing and Melting
Aluminum, the Element of the Kitchen
Metals and Non-Metals
The Precious Metal All about Us
Electricity Does the Trick
The Importance of Being Light
The Importance of Proper Corrosion
Iron, the Strong Element
The Secret Weapon
Impurities Out and Impurities In
Rust and Magnetism
Goblins and Devils
Sodium and Potassium, the Active Elements
Divorce by Electricity
The Opposite of Acid
Discovery by Light
Calcium, the Element of Bone
From Chalk to Pearls
Lime
Substances that Set
When Soap Doesn’t Work
Magnesium, the Incendiary Element
The White Flame
The Underpinning of the Continents
Fireworks and X-rays
Gems and Poison
Copper, Silver, and Gold, the Money
Elements
The First Metals
Electrical Wiring
Jewelry
Photography
The Useless Metal
Platinum, the Noble Element
The Usefulness of Nobility
The Sextuplets
The Noblest and the Heaviest
The Black Powder Speed-up
Tin and Lead, the Canner’s and Painter’s Elements
The Garden of Eden and the Tin Isles
Plumbers and Painters
Weight and Melting Point
Chemical Prediction
Mercury, the Liquid Element
The Different Metal
Dentists and Wedding Rings
Batteries and Protective Plating
Chromium, the Color Element
Plate and Paint
The Hard Steels
The Glowing Filament
Titanium, the Element with a Future
The Cinderella Metal
More Hard Steels
Boron, the Desert Element
Glass for Cooking
Predictions and Platypuses
Yttrium, the Scandinavian Element
Crowding the Periodic Table
The Identicals
More Identicals
Uranium, the Unstable Element
Atoms that Break Up
Radioactive Descendants
The Last Holes
Higher than the Highest
Index