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A Critical Review of Asimov Isaac, "A Short History of Chemistry". Garden City, New York

This paper summarizes Isaac Asimov's book "A Short History of Chemistry", which traces the development of chemistry from ancient times to the modern era. It describes how early Greek philosophers like Thales and Heraclitus studied the composition of matter and the beginnings of alchemy in Egypt. Key discoveries discussed include Dalton's atomic theory, Avogadro's hypothesis, and the establishment of gases laws. Later breakthroughs mentioned are the discovery of the electron by Thomson, Rutherford's atomic nucleus theory, and the development of organic chemistry. The summary concludes that while the book presents a large amount of information, it helped the author understand chemistry's importance and the many discoveries that have shaped the field over time.

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RichardA.Torres
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31 views2 pages

A Critical Review of Asimov Isaac, "A Short History of Chemistry". Garden City, New York

This paper summarizes Isaac Asimov's book "A Short History of Chemistry", which traces the development of chemistry from ancient times to the modern era. It describes how early Greek philosophers like Thales and Heraclitus studied the composition of matter and the beginnings of alchemy in Egypt. Key discoveries discussed include Dalton's atomic theory, Avogadro's hypothesis, and the establishment of gases laws. Later breakthroughs mentioned are the discovery of the electron by Thomson, Rutherford's atomic nucleus theory, and the development of organic chemistry. The summary concludes that while the book presents a large amount of information, it helped the author understand chemistry's importance and the many discoveries that have shaped the field over time.

Uploaded by

RichardA.Torres
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Richard Torres | December 5| Class A

A Critical Review of Asimov Isaac, A Short History of Chemistry. Garden City, New
York.
In this paper it will be summarized Isaac Asimovs book which is a follow-up of the ages
of chemistry. It describes the beginning of chemistry, how ancients Greek, who were known as
philosophers, studied alchemy and chemistry laws that we study today. These laws needed a
long time to be demonstrated. The topics in this book include: gases laws, the atom structure,
organic molecules, and periodic table in general. But one important question to be answered is:
has chemistry changed the knowledge of everything? Can we understand the meaning of
chemistry?
The author of this book explains how chemistry began with the discovery of fire and the
utilization of materials like stones, wood, and bones; this age was known as Stone Age. The first
elements found were the gold and copper and it continued with the Bronze Age (Trojan War).
Asimov described how Greek philosophers, like Thales and Heraclitus, thought that matter was
composed by water and fire.
The beginning of Alchemy was in Egypt, its objective was to discover metals. Chemistry
continued with the discovery of the meaning of an atom, Dalton atomic theory and Avogadro
hypothesis, even the organic chemistry shows how everything in the world has relation between
building blocks of the life and the matter.
In the molecular structure appears the valence and the organization of each element in
the periodic table. But according to Asimov, in XVII century chemistry was the study of changes
that do not implied alterations, for this reason there was a great interest in the research of heat,
catalysis and ionic dissociation.
This was the origin of synthetic organic chemistry and the study of dyes, drugs and
proteins. Then Thompson discovered electrons with his study of photoelectric effect and
cathode rays. But the investigation of chemistry does not end here, Rutherford proposed the
atomic nucleus theory, setting a way to the discovery of electron shells and isotopes.
Asimovs argument is an interesting proposal that shows how chemistry has changed
the worlds behavior in general because chemistry studies the real world. It explains how the
Greek and Egyptians studied the meaning of each piece that forms chemistry. In my opinion,
chemistry was created by people who really thought in a different way, people like Thales or
Aristotle, who thought in the composition of the matter something that was unusual in their age.

Every piece of information allowed new discovers like gases laws by Avogadro, photoelectric
effect by Thompson, and Rutherford with his atomic nucleus theory.
As we can see all inventions that we have today are based on chemistry. Asimov has
greatly described in his book how chemistry has changed our lives. He encourages students not
only to study chemistry as a subject in college, but he wants that every student who reads his
book finds out the true meaning of chemistry through time.
In summary, while I read this book I learnt new concepts of chemistry and how geniuses
of the history accomplished theories and discoveries. When I began to read this book I felt
overwhelmed with all the information presented. However I understood the history of chemistry
and the importance of those countless events that were painful but perhaps necessary. They
are valuable for the inventions that every day find new scientists.

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