Details Books Toward The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
| Original Title: | The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements |
| ISBN: | 0316051640 (ISBN13: 9780316051644) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for History and Biography (2010) |
Sam Kean
Hardcover | Pages: 394 pages Rating: 3.91 | 38836 Users | 3634 Reviews
Identify Of Books The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
| Title | : | The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements |
| Author | : | Sam Kean |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 394 pages |
| Published | : | July 12th 2010 by Little, Brown and Company |
| Categories | : | Science. Nonfiction. History. Chemistry |
Chronicle Concering Books The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium (Cd, 48)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why did tellurium (Te, 52) lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history? The periodic table is one of our crowning scientific achievements, but it's also a treasure trove of passion, adventure, betrayal and obsession. The fascinating tales in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, gold and every single element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, conflict, the arts, medicine and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. Why did a little lithium (Li, 3) help cure poet Robert Lowell of his madness? And how did gallium (Ga, 31) become the go-to element for laboratory pranksters? The Disappearing Spoon has the answers, fusing science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, discovery and alchemy, from the big bang through to the end of time.Rating Of Books The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
Ratings: 3.91 From 38836 Users | 3634 ReviewsAssess Of Books The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
Drive by review both literally and figuratively. Interesting/educational book with interesting anecdotes. Assumes a level of scientific knowledge not necessarily found in a casually curious science neophyte. IOW, way over my head. Rather hard to maintain focus and interest when you are barely understanding the composition of the simplest atoms. My take aways from the book are that the Periodic Table is drawn the way that it is beyond formatting choices. There are reasons that every element isIn a breezy style, Kean intersperses chemistry and physics with a potpourri of stories revolving around the elements. He explains how the elements formed and how they were discovered. He blends complex science and human interest in his examples of how the elements have been used and influenced history. Kean transitions quickly from deep discussions of atomic structure or quantum mechanics to oddities such as the nutcase who turned blue eating silver because he thought there would be no
This book constipated my reading for almost a month. I have overdue fines from other books that were stacked up behind it. Not because I wasn't enjoying the book: it's readable, fascinating, and chock full of the very anecdotes about science and scientists that I love. So then, why the hell did I find this book so hard?It's precisely because the book is a collection of anecdotes that it was so hard to read. I felt like I was trying to grasp quicksilver (mercury, symbol Hg from Latin hydragyrum,
I'm going to start out saying that Lisa wrote a great review of this book. As a book, this book is absolutely wonderful. It makes chemistry and physics comprehensible and fun. I listened to it in audio and thought the narrator did a fantastic job with it. He actually made the jokes sound funny. He knew what tone the author was striving for and he hit it spot-on. However, I think I ended up missing a lot by listening rather than reading. The book is so packed full of fun facts and numbers and, of
I'm going to have to stop saying that I don't like non fiction. This is the 3rd "science ish" book I have enjoyed recently. This was an interesting look at history as told thru the periodic table. I can't really speak to the accuracy of the science but I really enjoyed reading all the tales. I recognized a lot of the science names but learned some knew things about them. The parts I found the most interesting were how great an effect WWII had on science and scientists and the parts about mental
This is on the banned book list - why!? Oh that's right. Certain parents think that science is too "real" for their precious babies. What a lot of baloney! The Disappearing Spoon is, quite literally, one of the most fascinating, informative, FUNNY, books about the Periodic Table that I've ever read. Okay, it is the only book about the Periodic Table that I've ever read - but it is amazing. For those who love science or for those who simply would like to better under the elements that make the
Read this book. Read it twice.
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