The Chemistry Book Book Summary - The Chemistry Book Book explained in key points

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The Chemistry Book summary

Name: The Chemistry Book
Rating: 4.6 (201 reviews)
Author: Derek B Lowe

Derek B Lowe

From Gunpowder to Graphene, 250 Milestones in the History of Chemistry

4.6 (201 ratings)

36 mins

Brief summary

The Chemistry Book by Derek B Lowe is a comprehensive guide to chemical elements and their history, properties, and applications. It takes readers from ancient alchemy to modern chemical research and explores the fascinating world of chemistry.

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Table of Contents

The Chemistry Book
Summary of 13 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 13

What’s in it for me? Take a tour through some of chemistry’s most important milestones.

You don’t need a chemistry degree to know that this field is chock full of fascinating characters, unexpected turns of events, and plenty of dramatic discoveries. Sometimes these events can be ironic, like the invention of dynamite, and other times, they can be tragic, like the discovery of radium’s true nature.

While we can’t take you through each of the 250 events in The Chemistry Book, we’ll treat you to some memorable highlights and surprising details. These discoveries and landmark moments span human history’s high and low points – events that we’ll continue to celebrate and events that have served as regrettable warnings for future generations.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

the chemical origins of the word “gibberish”;
the confounding mysteries behind blue oil paint; and
the challenges standing in the way of hydrogen fuel.

Human achievements in chemistry started in the Bronze Age.

Our planet has always been home to amazing chemical processes. Take the two-story-tall crystals that pack caves in Mexico – the Cueva de Los Cristales. These gigantic pillars are a mind-boggling example of what happens when the common mineral gypsum is submerged in water that’s being heated up by magma, and then spends centuries cooling down during an ice age. The caves look like something out of a bizarre sci-fi movie. But they’re real, stunning, larger-than-life examples of chemical reactions that needed no human involvement.

It’s hard to say what the first human chemical discovery was. Was it the first man-made fire? Or the first time someone used a plant to help heal a wound?

The key message here is: Human achievements in chemistry started in the Bronze Age.

While copper was already being used for some basic tools, around 3300 BCE, we found a better, stronger, and more durable material in bronze.

Essentially, bronze is what happens when tin is added to copper. And what made this combination possible was travel and trade. Around 2000 BCE, tin from Cornwall, in southwestern England, began to show up in the Mediterranean. Eventually, some of the more daring metal workers in Mesopotamia began to experiment with the materials they had, including lead, nickel, silver – and copper. Eventually, bronze was born.

Over time, the Greeks would add more lead to the mixture to make bronze easier to work with, and then zinc would be added to make brass. Despite the changes throughout history, bronze has always been the metal of choice for bells, and it can still be found in the cymbals on your standard drum kit.

Around 1300 BCE, the Bronze Age transitioned into the Iron Age. But this wasn’t because iron was seen as a superior metal. Bronze is, in fact, harder and far less prone to corrosion. Really, what iron had going for it was availability.

Early iron technology involved heating charcoal and iron ore, producing a lump of crude smelted iron in the bottom of the furnace. Impurities were then, quite literally, hammered out. This has always been a labor-intensive process and one that requires a lot of forced air to keep furnaces burning at high temperatures. To get such conditions, it’s believed that some smelting operations were seasonal, in order to take advantage of recurring monsoon-like conditions.

But despite all this, iron smelting capabilities quickly spread, though it’s possible that locations as far removed as India and sub-Saharan Africa developed the technology independently from each other.

Ancient chemists advanced purification and refinement techniques, often with hopes for gold and eternal life.

We’ll never know who the first chemist was, but we do have a name for the earliest documented chemist: Tapputi. According to a tablet dated at around 1200 BCE, Tapputi was the name of a Babylonian woman who made perfume out of ingredients like myrrh and balsam. She also purified her concoctions by heating them and collecting the vapors. So, we can consider 1200 BCE the first documented reference to a purification process involving distillation and filtration.

Like iron smelting, many cultures knew how to make perfume. But when it comes to other areas and technologies, secrets did abound in the ancient world.

Some ancient techniques took hundreds of years to understand, while others remain a mystery.

Let’s go from the start of the Han Dynasty to the end, bringing us to around 200 AD. This is when we see the appearance of true porcelain.

Prior to this date, there had been all kinds of impressive ceramics, but nothing quite as beautiful as porcelain. Making it requires a mixture of bone ash, ground glass, quartz, alabaster or feldspar, and kaolin clay, which originally came from the village in southwest China that shares its name. Porcelain also requires just the right amount of water and extremely high levels of heat.

Good and virtuous intentions can sometimes lead to unintended consequences.

While ibn Hayyan was trying to turn iron into gold, alchemists in China were also attempting to transmute metals. It’s likely that these efforts and the continued quest for life-extending elixirs brought them something else entirely: gunpowder.

The key message here is: Good and virtuous intentions can sometimes lead to unintended consequences.

In the seventeenth century, world-changing developments preceded a shift to hard science.

Another important milestone in the history of medicinal chemistry arrived in 1631. That year, Jesuits had returned to Rome after a journey to the New World, and they brought back an incredible new medicine. It was a compound derived from the bark of South American cinchona trees. The medicine would come to be known as quinine.

The key message here is: In the seventeenth century, world-changing developments preceded a shift to hard science.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, chemical synthesis continued to advance.

If you’ve ever put paint onto a canvas, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of the color Prussian blue. But you may be surprised to find out how colorful the history of Prussian blue is, and the memorable role it played in the history of chemistry.

The key message here is: In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, chemical synthesis continued to advance.

In many cases, landmark events required multiple discoveries.

Does the name Christian Friedrich Schönbein ring a bell? Unless you’re already well versed in the history of chemistry, you’re probably unfamiliar with this German chemist. Yet he’s played a role in some important and still highly relevant discoveries.

The key message here is: In many cases, landmark events required multiple discoveries.

History is full of troublesome substances.

Certain substances are always going to be dangerous. Sometimes, there are ways to replace these substances with something better, but other times, the benefits outweigh the risks.

The key message here is: History is full of troublesome substances.

Some discoveries came at a heavy cost.

Among the biggest developments in the early twentieth century was our understanding of radioactive substances.

One of the first clues came in 1896 when the French physicist Antoine-Henri Becquerel found that uranium salts could cause photographic plates to become exposed. Becquerel knew that uranium compounds were emitting some sort of radiation.

It took decades before the effects of leaded gasoline were revealed.

As the story of Radithor shows, sometimes profits and chemistry lead to disaster. Another unflattering chapter in the history of chemistry belongs to tetraethyl lead.

Developed in 1921 by General Motors head Charles Kettering and chemist Thomas Midgley Jr., tetraethyl lead was added to automotive gasoline to allow the fuel to burn more evenly. And while it did just that, it also caused harmful amounts of lead to be released through exhaust fumes.

The twentieth century featured some disastrous chemical developments.

Once upon a time, owning a refrigerator was a dangerous proposition. In the 1920s, refrigerators worked by expanding and compressing gases. For some units, that gas was propane. For others, it was ammonia or sulfur dioxide. All of these gases involved some sort of risk, be they toxic to breathe or highly flammable. And since many of the gases were naturally corrosive, a leaking refrigerator was an all too common occurrence.

The key message here is: The twentieth century featured some disastrous chemical developments.

Modern research techniques have led to the development of life-saving drugs.

There’ve been experimental ancient Egyptians, ambitious alchemists in China, and studious European chemists during the Age of Enlightenment. Throughout history, one thing has remained true: we have an urge to derive healing and life-extending medicines from the remarkable variety of molecules on the planet.

The key message here is: Modern research techniques have led to the development of life-saving drugs.

Future milestones may involve innovations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

So what does the future of chemistry hold? What landmark events can we look forward to in the years to come?

The key message here is: Future milestones may involve innovations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

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What is The Chemistry Book about?

The Chemistry Book (2016) takes us on a tour through the history of chemistry from the first Bronze Age advancements to a possible future where clean, renewable energy is an everyday reality. Learn about the events and discoveries that have changed the world.

Best quote from The Chemistry Book

We dont know much about these early chemists and metallurgists, but its clear that they experimented with whatever they had on hand.

—Derek B Lowe

Who should read The Chemistry Book?

Anyone curious about how the world works
Students of chemistry and biology
People who enjoy stories about inventions and discoveries

About the Author

Derek B Lowe is a medicinal chemist who has worked for such companies as Bayer, Vertex, and Novartis. He’s also considered one of the first science bloggers. His blog In the Pipeline has provided readers with insight into the business, legal, and scientific matters with which people in his field have to deal. He is also a regular columnist for Chemistry World.

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