The Disappearing Spoon: and Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements

by Sam Kean

The Periodic Table is one of man's crowning scientific achievements. But it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON follow carbon, neon, silicon and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. We learn that Marie Curie used to provoke jealousy in colleagues' wives when she'd invite them into closets to see her glow-in-the-dark experiments. And that Lewis and Clark swallowed mercury capsules across the country and their campsites are still detectable by the poison in the ground. Why did Gandhi hate iodine? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium? And why did tellurium lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history? From the Big Bang to the end of time, it's all in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON

• ISBN10: 0316051640
• ISBN13: 9780316051644
• Publish Date: 12 July 2010 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 12 April 2014
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[celinenyx]

Did you love it when your teacher told funny science anecdotes? Then The Disappearing Spoon might be the book for you.

This book is exactly what it is made out to be. With a full title of The Disappearing Spoon And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements, it tells you everything you should know. Kean starts with the periodic table, talks about how it was created, and from there, tells of fun, tragic, or interesting stories about all of the elements.

Most of the science in The Disappearing Spoon is understandable with a high-school knowledge of chemistry. But even if you don't know enough chemistry, those parts can easily be skipped. Most of the book is heavily inspired by scientific history, rather than science itself. If you want to know more about the bickering and rivalries between chemists, this book is perfect. The Disappearing Spoon is highly entertaining, and it's clear the author has done extensive research into the lives of the scientists he talks about. My only gripe is that he has the tendency to lose direction sometimes, and flounders between all of the threads of stories he started, no longer clear on exactly what point he wanted to make.

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

An entertaining look at the periodic table and the discovery of the elements that make it up. A bit over my head at times, but an enjoyable diversion from the type of book I normally read.

[empressbrooke]

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 only encountered at the 101 level.