Pyrite : A Natural History of Fool's Gold.

Cover -- Pyrite -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Preface -- Prologue -- Plates -- 1 Foole's Gold -- So What Do You Do? -- Foole's Gold -- Fool's Gold as Pyrite -- Pyrite and the Founding of Canada -- Frobisher's Scam -- Pyrite and the Founding of the United States of America -- Fool's Gold in the Modern World -- 2 Pyrite and the Origins of Civilization -- The Gods of Fire -- The Origins of Human Culture -- The Earliest Chemical Industry -- Big Pharma -- Pyrite and the Origins of the Modern Arms Industry -- Pyrite Feeds the World -- Pyrite, Civilization, and Culture -- 3 What Is Pyrite? -- The Importance of Names -- Classical Origins -- Marcasite and the Arab Interlude -- Late Medieval Confusion -- Renaissance Revisions -- The Iron Mystery -- Renaissance Clarification -- Elements and Minerals -- Berthollet Redux -- 4 Crystals and Atoms -- Introduction -- Pyrite Habits -- Pyrite and the Foundations of X-Ray Crystallography -- Pyrite Structure: Counting Atoms -- Cubes and Atoms -- Dodecahedra Exist, Almost -- Octahedra and How Pyrite Crystals Grow -- Pyrite Raspberries -- Designer Pyrite -- 5 Hell and Black Smokers -- Ancient Ideas of Mineral Formation -- Pyrite and Volcanoes -- Pyrite and the Problem of Geologic Time -- Pyrite and the Origin of the Earth's Interior Heat -- Pyrite in Geothermal Springs -- Deep-Ocean Hydrothermal Vents -- Black Smoker Chimneys and Massive Pyrite Deposits -- Massive Pyrite Deposits as Fossil Hydrothermal Systems -- 6 Microbes and Minerals -- Rotten Eggs -- Blue Mud -- Source of Hydrogen Sulfide -- Bacteria Hold the Key -- Bacteria and Pyrite -- Pyrite Isotopes -- 7 Acid Earth -- Chemical Pyrite Oxidation -- Microbial Pyrite Oxidation -- Acid Rivers -- Eternal Fires -- Acid Rain -- Smog -- Acid Sulfate Soils -- Acidogene -- 8 Pyrite and the Global Environment -- Pyrite Formation and Burial.

Pyrite as a Key Component of the Earth System -- Death Zones in the Unfriendly Sea -- Pyrite Formation and the Evolution of Life -- Pyrite Sulfur Isotope Signatures and the Silver Bullet -- Other Earths -- 9 Pyrite and the Origins of Life -- Abiogenesis -- The Iron-Sulfur World -- The Oldest Pyrite -- The Frankenstein Experiment -- Pyrite and the Synthesis of Biomolecules -- Pyrite and the Earliest Organisms -- Pyrite, Biofilms, and Ancient Lagoons -- 10 Full Circle -- Pyrite, Alchemy, and Metal Extraction -- Pyrite and the Electronics Industry -- The Pyrite Resolution Board -- Pyrite, Free Radicals, and Life -- Extraterrestrial Pyrite -- Not So Foolish Gold -- Epilogue -- Index.

An accessible exploration of pyrite's influence on human history, culture, and science, revealing how fool's gold has become a universal symbol for everything overvalued.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.