The Elements: A Visual Guide of Every Known Atom in the Universe

Good books don’t just have to be novels.  Sometimes a book is excellent for the information it contains, and  how that information is presented.  Sometimes a book is excellent just because it is interesting to look at.  The Elements is such a book.  It presents a photographic journey through the entire Periodic table, starting with Hydrogen, and working up through element 118, ununoctium, which at the time of writing had not yet been synthesized (it is now formally named Oganesson).  Each page has a large photograph of the raw state of the element, followed by pictures and information about the various uses of the element in everyday life.  In the margin is more technical data and graphs which represent things such as the crystal structure of the element.  I have to confess that I wish someone had presented the periodic table to me this way in high school chemistry class.  It would have been decidedly more memorable.  I encourage everyone, students of science or not, to take a look.  It’s like a National Geographic magazine for the elements.  Verdict:  Wow!