Seven Elements That Have Changed the World Read Free

people and materials and the cross-fertilisation of ideas. They have not only helped to spread the economic benefits of the Earth’s elements across the world but have also stimulated human progress.
    Silicon is the final element of the story, and perhaps the most transformative of all. It was first used to make objects of beauty in the form of glass beads, vases and mirrors. Later it became a common, utilitarian building material, draped around the outside of skyscrapers, satisfying the human desire for light. But silicon’s greatest impact has been in the last half-century as the inner workings of computers. In this ‘Silicon Age’, we calculate and communicate effortlessly, with instant access to the sum of human knowledge. Silicon’s impact on society is perhaps greatest when placed in the hands of the ordinary citizen. As the heart of modern communication, silicon has supported political revolutions in the Arab Springand broken down the geographical barriers that have restrained our social interactions for millennia.
Destruction
    The elements have created progress, innovation and prosperity, but they have also wreaked great destruction on people and nature. Carbon’s destructive force is felt through the indirect consequences of its extraction and consumption. During the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, the air became thick with smoke and thousands died in mine collapses and explosions. As industrial revolutions followed around the world, the consequences were similar. Only in the last two decades have we come to realise carbon’s most insidious effect. Burning hydrocarbons has released billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, trapping the energy of the sun and potentially changing the world’s climate.
    Often the destructive forces of the elements are unleashed by deliberate human action. The strength of iron has made it not only the beneficial tool of peaceful industry, but also the brutally efficient and bloody weapon of war, in swords, guns, ships and tanks. Iron has also been the subject of conflict: for almost a century, the great powers of Europe went to war to obtain control of the vast iron ore and coke reserves of the Ruhr and Alsace Lorraine.
    Throughout my career I have seen how oil, the ‘black gold’, has driven men’s passions, desires and greed. The world has become very dependent on oil and therefore anxious about securing reliable supplies of it. Oil confers powers on leaders who control it but is sometimes more of a curse than a benefit to the countries that produce it.
    But in the history of the elements, humanity has committed the greatest acts of cruelty in its quest for ownership of gold. Over half a millennium, this precious metal has inspired intense greed, madness and violence, driving people to plunder, kill and enslave.
    One element stands above all others in its destructive power. Uranium is the element which defined the post-war era. It is tied to one of the darkest moments in human history: the detonation of an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. From that dark moment came the great hope that we coulduse uranium’s extraordinary energy for creation rather than destruction. But the great hope of cheap and abundant nuclear-generated electricity has been dogged by dread and fear. Uranium continues to command power on the global stage as we struggle to control the spread of nuclear weapons. By unlocking its power, we have created the potential for our own destruction.
Human choice
    So great is the influence of these elements that they have taken on personalities of their own: uranium, the powerful and the fearful; gold, the alluring and hypnotic; and iron, the strong and dependable. But, in a sense, their story is nothing more than the story of seven arrangements of protons, neutrons and electrons, the pattern which gives each element its character. It is tempting to think of these characteristics as inevitable or even uncontrollable. But each element’s character is