Elixir A Parisian Perfume House and the Quest for the Secret of Life

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  • Engels
  • Hardcover
  • 9780674250895
  • 25 april 2023
  • 320 pagina's
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Samenvatting

Drawing on alchemical theory, Édouard Laugier and Auguste Laurent set out to find the vital essence of life through the craft of perfumes. While drawing the ire of enlightened Bohemian Paris, they discovered fundamental differences in the structures of naturally occurring and synthetic molecules, inaugurating a persistent scientific mystery.



A Financial Times and Scientific American Best Book of the Year.

A story of alchemy in Bohemian Paris, where two scientific outcasts discovered a fundamental distinction between natural and synthetic chemicals that inaugurated an enduring scientific mystery.

For centuries, scientists believed that living matter possessed a special quality—a spirit or essence—that differentiated it from nonliving matter. But by the nineteenth century, the scientific consensus was that the building blocks of one were identical to the building blocks of the other. Elixir tells the story of two young chemists who were not convinced, and how their work rewrote the boundary between life and nonlife.

In the 1830s, Édouard Laugier and Auguste Laurent were working in Laugier Père et Fils, the oldest perfume house in Paris. By day they prepared the perfumery’s revitalizing elixirs and rejuvenating eaux, drawing on alchemical traditions that equated a plant’s vitality with its aroma. In their spare time they hunted the vital force that promised to reveal the secret to life itself. Their ideas, roundly condemned by established chemists, led to the discovery of structural differences between naturally occurring molecules and their synthetic counterparts, even when the molecules were chemically identical.

Scientists still can’t explain this anomaly, but it may point to critical insights concerning the origins of life on Earth. Rich in sparks and smells, brimming with eccentric characters, experimental daring, and the romance of the Bohemian salon, Elixir is a fascinating cultural and scientific history.

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Inhoud

Taal
en
Bindwijze
Hardcover
Oorspronkelijke releasedatum
25 april 2023
Aantal pagina's
320

Betrokkenen

Hoofdauteur
Theresa Levitt
Hoofduitgeverij
Harvard University Press

Overige kenmerken

Product breedte
140 mm
Product hoogte
27 mm
Product lengte
210 mm
Studieboek
Nee
Verpakking breedte
144 mm
Verpakking hoogte
34 mm
Verpakking lengte
217 mm
Verpakkingsgewicht
884 g

EAN

EAN
9780674250895
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