Seven Elements That Changed the World: An Adventure of Ingenuity and Discovery

by John Browne

Ebook, 2014

Status

Available

Call number

546

Collection

Kindle

Genres

Description

Combining true stories from the worlds of history, science, and politics, describes how the use of seven elements--iron, carbon, gold, silver, uranium, titanium, and silicon--has changed the world for both the better and worse.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member kaitanya64

I picked this up because I thought it would be a sort of scientific history. I should have read the author note to discover this is written by a former BP executive. I went back to look at the notes when I had read about thirty pages and was beginning to be concerned by the author's "rah rah for

progress" tone. This is a book that makes greed and environmental destruction sound like laudable activities. The description of fracking which is called "enhanced oil recovery" in this book) makes it sound harmless and even hygienic. While there is some interesting info here is reads more like a clumsy attempt to snow the reader with cheerfully oblivious patter.

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