Abstract
Some scientists have reached their dotage. At 70, John Lenihan has achieved his anecdotage. After a professional career in which he has made many notable contributions to the subject of trace elements, he has produced this splendid collection of anecdotes and observations, wickedly illustrated by Jack Fleming. Those who have heard John Lenihan's witty after-dinner speeches will not be surprised by the wide-ranging scholarship displayed in this volume. It is popular science at its best. The scientific observations are clearly described, the historical perspective is neatly worked in, and the reader is nowhere misled by bias or prejudice. My wife, not herself a trained scientist, greatly enjoyed reading this book, as I did. There are few works with which it may be compared, though R L Weber's A Random Walkin Science has some of its intellectual flair. Otherwise you have to go back to Victorian classics such as A H Church's Chemistry in Daily Life.