The Last Alchemist in Paris

摘要

What is the connection between Miss Smilla and her feeling for snow and the picturesque village of Le Baux-des-Provence? Is the legend of a button-less army of the emperor Napoleon truly a consequence of the interconversion of tin allotropes? Or, what makes a diamond engagement ring, which in fact is not a real diamond ring, interfere with US nuclear submarines? These and many more connections are revealed in Lars Ohrstroms book The Last Alchemist in Paris. The Swedish professor of inorganic chemistry puts scientific discoveries and inventions in a historical context. He devotes each of the 22 chapters to a chemical element or element group. For example, the chapter "From Bitterfeld with Love" starts with the story of Henry Low-enhaupt performing an experiment which, of course, no chemist would do in real life: He throws a piece of calcium into a river and watches the spectacular reaction. This is the starter to introduce the reader to the beginnings of the Russian nuclear program and the related espionage activities of the CIA and MI6. This story is used to convey information about the chemistry of uranium, the reduction of uranium fluoride by calcium metal, and the problems caused by its contamination with the boron isotope ~(10)B. That combination of different but interconnected events allows Lars Ohrstrom to explain to the interested reader some fundamental chemical knowledge such as the use of chemical equations, redox reactions, and the basics of atomic structure.