In the mid-nineteenth century, chemists came to the conclusion that elements should be organized by their atomic weights. However, the atomic weights of various elements were calculated erroneously, and chemists also observed some anomalies in the properties of other elements. Over time, it became clear that the periodic table as currently comprised contained gaps, missing elements that had yet to be discovered. A rush to discover these missing pieces followed, and a seemingly endless amount of elemental discoveries were proclaimed and brought into laboratories. It wasn't until the discovery of the atomic number in 1913 that chemists were able to begin making sense of what did and what did not belong on the periodic table, but even then, the discovery of radioactivity convoluted the definition of an element further. Throughout its formation, the periodic table has seen false entries, good-faith errors, retractions, and dead ends; in fact, there have been more elemental "discoveries" that have proven false than there are current elements on the table.
The Lost Elements: The Shadow Side of Discovery collects the most notable of these instances, stretching from the nineteenth century to the present. 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. Chapters range from early chemists' stubborn refusal to disregard alchemy as legitimate practice, to the effects of the atomic number on discovery, to the switch in influence from chemists to physicists, as elements began to be artificially created in the twentieth century. Along the way, Fontani, Costa, and Orna introduce us to the key figures in the development of the periodic table as we know it. And we learn, in the end, that this development was shaped by errors and gaffs as much as by correct assumptions and scientific conclusions.

This brief offers a novel vision of the city of Florence, tracing the development of chemistry via the biographies of its most illustrious chemists. It documents not only important scientific research that came from the hands of Galileo Galilei and the physicists who followed in his footsteps, but also the growth of new disciplines such as chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, and biochemistry. It recounts how, in the Middle Ages, chemistry began as an applied science that served to bolster the Florentine economy, particularly in the textile dyeing industry. Later, important scientific collections founded by the ruling Medici family served as the basis of renowned museums that now house priceless artifacts and instruments. Also described in this text are the chemists such as Hugo Schiff, Angelo Angeli, and Luigi Rolla, who were active over the course of the following century and a quarter. The authors tell the story of the evolution of the Royal University of Florence, which ultimately became the University of Florence. Of interest to historians and chemists, this tale is told through the lives and work of the principal actors in the university's department of chemistry.