"First published as The ingredients, 2002"--T.p. verso.

1. Aristotle's quartet : the elements in antiquity -- 2. Revolution : how oxygen changed the world -- 3. Gold : the glorious and accursed element -- 4. The eightfold path : organizing the elements -- 5. The atom factories : making new elements -- g6. The chemical brothers : why isotopes are useful -- 7. For all practical purposes : technologies of the elements.