Specify Books During 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
Narration As 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.
Particularize 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 |
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 ReviewsCriticize 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
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, ofA book filled with many interesting trivia. One of which is the alpha variability. So the story went that the alpha value must be an exact x or heavier elements won't be able to bond and create our wonderful universe. Now, there's a suggestion that that value was different in the past. That brings a sobering thought. If there's only a tiny window of opportunity for life to emerge (since in the future the alpha value would have changed again and not be hospitable to life creation), we may really
This book is quite an entertaining read. It is packed with interesting anecdotes about scientists who explored the outer fringes of the periodic table. I even learned a little bit of chemistry. The book is organized in an intelligent manner--each chapter is devoted to some theme, with a small group of elements that fit into that theme in some way. Sometimes the author strays from the exploration of elements, but he always seems to relate to the chapter's theme. The only thing that puts me off a
This book was lots of fun, and it certainly taught me more than I ever learned in high school chemistry class. Quite honestly, if someone had asked me for a definition of "chemistry" before, I don't think I would have known what to say. At the same time, The Disappearing Spoon wasn't like a lecture in the least bit, and instead folded tons of scientific information into stories about the scientists and their accomplishments. I'd recommend it to anyone who's curious about a subject they may have
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 is
Stop the search. Recall the teams. I have found the non-fiction, summer read of 2010! The Disappearing Spoon.First, whats a summer read, Mr. Josey Wales thumbnail photo? A summer read is one you can enjoy during a vacation to the beach, with fresh cocktails and clean towels provided by the swarthy, bronzed attendant at a seafront hotel. You can finish it in a few days in bite-sized chunks, it doesnt overpower you academically, you learn a little, and the subject is something entirely new to you,
In 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
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