Seven Elements

Title: Seven Elements That Have Changed the World

Author: John Browne

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2013 (First)

ISBN: 9780297869894

Pages: 279

All things we come across in our daily lives are made of smaller components of that material. These are in turn made by still smaller factors until we finally reach a point at which what is remaining is unique and can’t be split further. In arithmetic, this may be compared to prime factors of a composite number which can’t be split further. Ancient Greeks thought earth, fire, air and water as the basic elements that constitute the world. As science progressed, we did away with ancient notions and established chemistry as the field which studies properties of elements. Today, we have in the Periodic Table 92 naturally occurring elements, and a few man-made elements that have only a fleeting moment of existence. John Browne identifies seven elements among them that have exerted the greatest influence on human societies. His selection of elements that includes carbon, iron, gold, silver, uranium, titanium and silicon is questionable in terms of significance. Browne himself identifies the subjective nature of his choice, but compensates for this shortfall by a general discussion on the historical, scientific, industrial and economic repercussions of each of them. The author, also a peer with the name Lord Browne of Madingley, joined British Petroleum (BP) in 1966 and grew in career to become its Group Chief Executive from 1995 to 2007. He is an engineer, collector and businessman, who has published his memoirs in book form.

The story of iron and carbon is interlinked as Browne narrates it. Smelting of iron required coal in large quantities. Modern iron and steel conglomerates are concentrated where coal also is cheaply available. On the other hand the utility of carbon is most visibly expressed in fossil fuels which contain molecules of carbon and hydrogen. Oil and natural gas are found at extreme depths under the ground or ocean floor. Elaborate platforms and transmission pipelines built of iron and steel is required to collect the oil. Extensive riches could be generated in the two businesses. The author tells the story of Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller which is intriguing on account of the irony in their thrust for profits and then giving the wealth back to the society in the form of charity. Carnegie was a steel magnate who used every devious method in his arsenal to maximize profits. Curtailing his employees’ wages was one among them. The unions immediately called a strike which was not intensive or combative enough to upset the plans of Carnegie and his managers who were sheltered behind barbed fences and protected by private and armed security guards. As the agitation used force to break up the operations of the company they were shot down. This tarnished his reputation but he continued to make profit. However after he retired from business, Carnegie put up a number of philanthropic institutions and societies that channeled the ill-gotten money in reverse gear for the benefit of the people. Then why did he resort to unscrupulous and inhuman methods to amass it? An exactly similar case is encountered in the life of Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Company. The author being a former chief executive of British petroleum many real life instances that threatened the energy security of the world are mentioned in first hand detail. His proximity to business magnates and powerful politicians of many nations helped him pick the issues affecting production of fossil fuel presently. He attributes arguments like oil peak and decreasing production to doom-mongering. Comparing such pessimistic estimates to the equally fearsome predictions of Malthus in the 18^thcentury Browne concludes that such worst case scenarios failed to take into account rapid changes in technology or material that rewrites the way history is moving. Malthus famously missed out on the Industrial Revolution.

The chapter on uranium lays more stress on its political implications rather than scientific concerns. The issue of ‘high-dread-to-risk-ratio’ of nuclear power is stressed. Contrary to public perception, safety levels in nuclear reactors are much higher than other power stations. The number of accidents in nuclear stations can be counted in the fingers of one hand. But above all, people are scared of radiation which kills life yet is invisible. Those who are exposed to radiation at dangerous levels run the risk of developing cancer at an unpredictable time in their lives. All of these came to the fore in the aftermath of Fukushima reactor accident in Japan in 2011. The reactor cooling systems broke down when it was inundated by tsunami floods triggered by an earthquake of epic proportions. Meltdowns and explosions occurred, with the spread of harmful radiation into the atmosphere. Japanese public opinion quickly swung against nuclear power per se and the country’s reactors were temporarily shut down. However alternate energy sources are highly restricted by the availability and price of oil or natural gas. When the price of gas is high as was seen before 2014 such abandonment of nuclear power in the face of uninformed public opinion is sure to cripple the economies of many developing nations. On the latter half of the chapter Browne examines the issues related to proliferation of nuclear weapons to rogue states like North Korea and Pakistan. The first is a threat to world peace on account of an outdated ideology that dictates terms to its own people while in Pakistan it is only a matter of time when Islamic terrorists get hold of the bomb or at least a stripped down version of it. The Pakistani state is slowly unraveling and peddlers of nuclear technology like A Q Khan are active in the field to furnish the technology to the highest bidder. However Browne stops short of making a full scale indictment on Pakistan.

Even after reading the full text one wonders why titanium is included as such a critical element that changed the world. Browne’s arguments are so unconvincing on this point. But his choice of Silicon as the seventh fully deserves it in every aspect. Silicon is abundant in common sand, but the utility it confers on mankind is simply amazing. The element had several useful incarnations for society. In the Middle-Ages, glass was made of it when Silica was heated with Soda. Great art work was made from it but it was not something indispensable. The crucial transformation of Silicon came about with the invention of transistor in the Bell Labs. With the development of integrated circuit a few years later the era of vacuum tubes were over, along with the displacement of bulky computers and other electronic equipment with compact, versatile and lightweight gizmos. Computing power grew exponentially in accordance with Moore’s law. Today a good mobile phone houses more computing power than that of NASA’s lunar mission when astronauts first landed on moon. Silicon continues to be a highly useful element in the form of optical fibers which conduct high speed communications across the globe.

The book’s greatest disadvantage is that it is nothing more than a journal of random and subjective thought. The ideas and events mentioned in the work are only of the West. The remarks about the East like the Iron Lion of Cangzhou are cursory. Browne’s extensive travel and meeting with the wealthy and powerful as the head of BP has led to insightful recollections which are reproduced in the book. Even though it deals with gold, no reference is made to the intriguing yet fruitless quest of alchemy which tried to turn base metals into gold. On the positive side, Browne expresses a rational and pragmatic approach towards pessimists who trumpet about the extinction of useful commodities like oil in the near future. The book is well adorned with a number of colour plates. It includes a thorough section of Notes, a good bibliography and a commendable index.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star