The periodic table occupies the same strong place in our imagination as the alphabet, calendar and zodiac signs. But the chemical elements themselves, apart from a few of the most common ones: iron, carbon, copper, gold, are shrouded in mystery. For the most part, we don’t know what they look like, in what form they are found in nature, why they are so named and how they are useful for us. Welcome to a dizzying tour through the pages of history and literature, science and art! "Science Tales" will introduce you to the iron that falls from the sky and tell you about the sorrowful path of neon light. You will learn how to tell fortunes using lead and why one day your coffin may turn out to be zinc. You will find that there is a very direct connection between the bones of your skeleton and the White House in Washington - just like between the light of a street lamp and the salt on your table. Human life is built on chemical elements - from ancient civilizations to modern culture, from oxygen, about which they know everything, down to phosphorus in the urine, which only specialists know about. They are everywhere. "Science Tales" will reveal their sensational secrets and tell about their turbulent past, and the reader will find a fascinating journey through mines and art studios, factories and cathedrals, forests and seas, where he will learn the whole truth about these wonderful and mysterious building blocks of the Universe.< /p>