pages cm Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fontani, Marco, 1969– The lost elements : the periodic table’s shadow side / Marco Fontani, Mariagrazia Costa, and Mary Virginia Orna. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. © Oxford University Press 2015 All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Marco Fontani, Mariagrazia Costa, and Mary Virginia Ornaġ Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. The Lost Elements The Periodic Table’s Shadow Side

Featuring a preface from Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffmann, The Lost Elements is an expansive history of the wrong side of chemical discovery - and reveals how these errors and gaffes have helped shape the table as much as any other form of scientific progress.

Along the way, Fontani, Costa, and Orna introduce us to the key figures in the development of today's periodic table, including Lavoisier and Mendeleev. As elements began to be created artificially in the twentieth century, we watch the discovery climate shift to favor the physicists, rather than the chemists. We learn of early chemists' stubborn refusal to disregard alchemy as a legitimate practice, and of one German's supposed discovery of an elemental metal that breathed. The book tells the story of how scientists have come to understand elements, by discussing the failed theories and false discoveries that shaped the path of scientific progress. The Lost Elements: The Periodic Table's Shadow Side collects the most notable of these instances, stretching from the nineteenth century to the present. In fact, there have been more falsely proclaimed elemental discoveries throughout history than there are elements on the table as we know it today. Throughout its formation, the Periodic Table of Elements has seen false entries, good-faith errors, retractions, and dead ends. With the discovery of radioactivity, the discourse only intensified. Supposed 'discoveries' flooded laboratories, and the debate over what did and did not belong on the periodic table reached a fever pitch. However, the weights of many elements were calculated incorrectly, and over time it became clear that not only did the elements need rearranging, but that the periodic table contained many gaps and omissions: there were elements yet to be discovered, and the allure of finding one had scientists rushing to fill in the blanks.

In the mid-nineteenth century, chemists were of the belief that the elements should be sorted by atomic weight. The Periodic Table of Elements hasn't always looked like it does now, a well-organized chart arranged by atomic number.

Priestley periodic table explorer