[Corribus]

Cool, but be honest: was it just coincidence you saw this thread or do you do a google search for your name every day?

[408]

I'm Eric Scerri.  Thanks for mentioning my books in this forum.

Schrodinger is puzzled as to why I might write books on the periodic table.  Surely not so puzzling given that the periodic table is the central organizing principle of chemistry, the main paradigm, that which brings together so many different levels of knowledge and individual pieces of data.

My latest book, just out, is "A Tale of Seven Elements", also published by Oxford University Press just like my two books on the periodic table.  This latest one deals with the discovery of the last seven elements among the 1-92 boundaries of the old periodic table before any transuranium elements were synthesized.  But the final chapter is devoted to elements beyond 92.

http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Seven-Elements-Eric-Scerri/dp/0195391314/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363754314&sr=1-1&keywords=tale+of+seven+elements

There is also a feature article in the June issue of Scientific American called "Cracks in the Periodic Table" in which I discuss what the properties of the superheavy elements mean for the validity of the periodic table at very high atomic numbers.

eric scerri
UCLA

Hi Eric,

This is not a question about the content of your books, but rather the process of publishing a popular science book.  What is the process like?  How do sales of a popular science do?  Are royalties and advances livable?

Thanks,