The Disappearing Spoon...and other true tales from the Periodic Table - Softcover

Kean, Sam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552777501 ISBN 13: 9780552777506

Publisher: Black Swan, 2011

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review

"...brimming with puckish wit ... his love for the elements is downright infectious ... He gives science a whiz-bang verve so that every page becomes one you cannot wait to turn just to see what he's going to reveal next."--Caroline Leavitt, Boston Globe

"Kean has Bill Bryson's comic touch... a lively history of the elements and the characters behind their discovery."--New Scientist

"A non-stop parade of lively science stories... with the éclat of raw sodium dropped in a beaker of water."--New York Times

"Unpacks the periodic table's bag of tricks ... with such aplomb and fascination that material normally as heavy as lead transmutes into gold ... the anecdotal flourishes of Oliver Sacks and the populist accessibility of Malcolm Gladwell"--Entertainment Weekly

"Only once in a rare while does an author come along with the craft and the vision to capture the fun and fascination of chemistry. The Disappearing Spoon is a pleasure and full of insights. If only I had read it before taking chemistry"--Mark Kurlansky, author of Cod and Salt

"One of the most readable and entertaining books about science yet published ... [Kean] is master of enlightening metaphors"--Daily Express

"This book is entirely entertaining - it's a real page turner, and there's very little not to like about the combination of a string of QI like fascinating facts with a whole slew of engaging stories ... a delight to read, taking a very predictable subject and approaching it in an entertaining, original and informative way ... if you want to be entertained and find out lots of history and fascinating facts around the elements themselves, this is the one for you."--Popularscience.co.uk

"This book is the literary equivalent of a prime-time documentary on the Discovery Channel or BBC1: populist, accesible, and elementary (boom-boom!), without being simplistic ... You don't need to know your p from your d orbitals to understand, enjoy and learn from a book carefully written by an author keen to share his enthusiasm with a wider audience ... even for those of us with science backgrounds, The Disappearing Spoon remains diverting and entertaining ... The cast of characters makes it entertaining and accesible ... Given the lamentable state of education about science among the general public, we should applaud Kean's ability to bring chemistry to the masses."--Mark Greener, Fortean Times

From the Publisher

Longlisted for the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2011

Edition details

• Publisher: Black Swan
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0552777501
• ISBN 13: 9780552777506
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 400