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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
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $10.98
as of 9/7/2010 14:22 EDT details
You Save: $14.01 (56%)
New (46) Used (12) from $10.98
Seller: Holston Book
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 212
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0316051640
Dewey Decimal Number: 546
EAN: 9780316051644
ASIN: 0316051640
Publication Date: July 12, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780316051644 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| • | Kindle Edition - The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements | | • | Audio CD - The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements | | • | Audible Audio Edition - The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements | | • | Audio CD - The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements | | • | Audio CD - The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Lots About Chemists, Little About Chemistry September 7, 2010
Ralph Peteranderl (Beverly, MA)
Deep down in the heart of anybody who is interested in chemistry - if they are honest enough to admit it - is a lust for explosions and fire balls. Chemistry, and especially inorganic chemistry - can be a rewarding spectacle. People know that, and you just have to look at Theodore Grey's "The Elements" or the videos of the periodic table on YouTube. There are some truly spectacular compounds such as difluorodioxide, a molecule so reactive that it burns sand. There are nitrogen compounds that explode and borine based rocket fuels. Very little of that shows up in the book. Instead there is a lot of physics, and a lot of gossip about the people involved in the history of chemistry. That's the main thing that I carried away from reading the book - a lot of rather sordid gossip
 Science Is Fun September 3, 2010
AstroCycler
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Good book... very readable. This is not a technical book but more of a history of the science of elements and their discovery. Definitely worth the read.
A fun read August 30, 2010
Adam L
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a fun pop-science book. Even as a science nerd, there was lots in there that I hadn't heard about before. I especially liked the section on madness in science, and the section on cold fusion had lots of good stuff in there.
 A delightful alchemy of transforming science to entertainment August 29, 2010
Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA)
Like many readers, I took chemistry in high school and didn't think much about it. But my dim memories of atoms with electrons and protons was more than adequate to allow me to follow this author's stories. Compared to other books I've read in the popular science genre, this book was by far the most enjoyable and most accessible. Even if you're not deeply interested in science, but only have a mild curiosity, you can enjoy this book.
Disappearing Spoon is not an airport book. It's not a book you'll (most likely) want to devour at one sitting. I found myself taking in one chapter at a time, discovering how chemistry can explain news events, stories and large-scale phenomena. For instance, I hadn't thought of "Silicon Valley" and "semi-conductors" from a scientific perspective. I hadn't considered how poisons and x-rays work.
Because each chapter is so different, readers may find they resonate with certain sections more than others. My own favorite was the chapter on astronomy, where Kean writes about the way scientists estimate the age of an object and even a solar system. The "disappearing spoon" is actually one of the less interesting examples provided by the author.
Also, because the author focuses on human interest stories (such as the race to claim recognition for DNA), the chemistry lessons sneak in. I'm not sure the book offers a pathway to motivate readers to dig deeper and learn more chemistry, but who cares? It's like spending some time with an expert - getting a backstage pass to understanding how and why many things really work.
Chemistry as Entertainment August 26, 2010
Susan Kohl (Dinsmore, CA)
I did take chemistry as a college student. It was not half as interesting as this book. While you will not know how to become a mad scientist by reading this book, you can live vicariously, and follow some of the more bizarre and important chemical explorations by real scientists. I did have a little problem with some of the authors more emphatic beliefs. He seems to doubt possibilities, that future scientists may discover to be true. Particularly his statements about quantum physics. But generally, Mr. Kean has written a very entertaining and readable book about the discoveries surrounding the periodic table. It would have been great to read this when studying chemistry in depth. I never really appreciated the more oddly named elements until reading about the characters who discovered them.
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