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Stwertka's compilation is intended to be a
middle-school and high-school reference book, and it shows.
The coverage is a mile wide and an inch deep, and has a
few sizable craters and rough spots. For example, the article
on iron makes no mention whatever of its essential role in
oxygen transport in vertebrates, and the word "potassium"
appears to derive from "potash (potassium-rich ash)."
A Guide to the Elements is certainly a niftier package than
Greenwood and Earnshaw's Chemistry of the
Elements, but doesn't compare as an essential reference.
The good points include lots of color pictures
and plenty of information that relate the elements to their
most common technological uses. I was disappointed, though,
to find no consistent discussion of how each element and
its most important compounds are produced industrially, a
frequently sought piece of information that would not, in
my opinion, have made the book unwieldy.
There is much good information in this book,
especially on transuranium elements and radioisotopes. The
presentation is interesting and eye-catching, calculated to hold
the interest of a student who knows little about chemistry.
However, this book is intended as a library reference and I
am not certain that it is worth the price. In my opinion,
A Guide to the Elements is a luxury, not a necessity.
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