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

Sam Kean

Jul 2010 · Sold by Little, Brown

About this ebook

From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes incredible stories of science, history, finance, mythology, the arts, medicine, and more, as told by the Periodic Table.

Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why is gallium (Ga, 31) the go-to element for laboratory pranksters?

The Periodic Table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, betrayal, and obsession. These fascinating tales follow every element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, and in the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. The Disappearing Spoon masterfully fuses science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, and discovery -- from the Big Bang through the end of time.

Though solid at room temperature, gallium is a moldable metal that melts at 84 degrees Fahrenheit. A classic science prank is to mold gallium spoons, serve them with tea, and watch guests recoil as their utensils disappear.

Ratings and reviews

True to its title, "The Disappearing Spoon", stirs up the otherwise pedantic world of chemistry with a bit of whimsy. This collection of anecdotal tales all revolve around elements from the famous periodic table, which you may remember from chemistry class. Well, in my case, there was never a love connection with chemistry class. In fact, it was my least favorite class, but that's exactly why I chose Sam Kean's book. If it could rise to the challenge of winning over a non-scientific person such as myself, then surely it would be made of that literary magic which I so often refer to in my reviews. Sam Kean met the challenge by making the periodic table, the Bunsen Burner, iodine, and other chemical elements leading stars of stories both historically significant, entertaining and, dare I say, fascinating. He sets this enthralling effort in motion with an introduction, recounting a childhood story of his experience with mercury. This flash memoir will strike a chord with anyone who ever "played" with this lethal substance. The stories that unfold from there only get better and better. With the aid of some well-known historical figures, from the ancients to the contemporary, Kean breathes life into the subject of chemistry. Find out why Gandhi hated iodine or why copper has proved the simplest, healthiest way to improve infrastructures. Find out how alchemy and the production of currency for anti-counterfeiting have evolved, or how lithium remedies some mental illnesses. Discover why Marie Curie named the first element she isolated "polonium", why her more well-known discovery, "radium" outshone it, and most of all, why people thought it healthy to drink irradiated water. Find out, also, as the title promises, how does a spoon disappear? "The Disappearing Spoon" offers a wealth of anecdotes which enrich the subject of chemistry in a fun way, thanks to Kean's casual, often humorous, writing. I recommend this book to both serious students of chemistry as well as more right-brained thinkers who learn by visualizing the whole picture. For those who prefer art and literature over the laboratory, this collection of little known stories and facts surrounding the chemical elements provides the reader with a well-rounded balance between the arts and sciences.

“The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Element” is a novel by Sam Kean. The theme of this book talks a lot about the history through the eyes of chemical elements. Written by a physics major and writer stationed in Washington, D.C., this novel was assigned by my teacher. The author wanted to educate people on the history of chemicals and elements. Overall, this novel was interesting due to its talk about weapons and scientific phenomena. This story tells history in five parts: geography, making and breaking atoms, biology, elements’ effect on humans, and the future of chemistry. In the first part, it talks about the ancestry of elements and the Galapagòs Islands. In the second part, it begins to expand upon where atoms come from and what chemicals can do when used for warfare. When the story begins to talk about biology, it talks about poisons, medicine, and how they don’t always react the way they should. In the fourth part, the story starts to talk about the past and current value of elements, as well as how they affect politics and arts. The last few chapters talk about chemistry around absolute zero, bubbles, precise measuring tools, and (perhaps) new elements that we humans have not yet found. What I found interesting was that Sam Keane managed to meld chemistry with history through writing about chemical warfare and bombs. He starts out by saying that chemical warfare has been around for centuries. The first instance of it was smoke used by Ancient Greek peoples. It’s interesting how chemical warfare has advanced from simple smoke and sulfur to chlorine-based gelbkruez, or more well known as mustard gas. It has killed thousands, if not millions of people, where as smoke and sulfur were used simply to lure others out. Another interesting fact is that bombs, an inconceivable idea just a few centuries ago, have evolved to create a weapon capable of outright killing 80,000 people and reducing 4 square miles to rubble and dust., not to mention the radiation left over. Another interesting facet of this tale is the scientific phenomena, namely stating bubbles and chemistry below 0º. Not surprisingly, bubbles used to be overlooked because of their toyish and childish potential. However, interestingly, once physics began to dominate the scientific world, the view of bubbles changed so that they are used to look at the development of cells, one of the most complex phenomena in the universe. As well as bubbles, chemistry below 0º is interesting. Sam Keane demonstrates this with his talk of helium, which normally cannot be broken down or changed, but becomes a superfluid at -456ºF. Essentially, it has zero viscosity and zero resistance to flow. To me, this is very fascinating. Overall, this book is very interesting due to its talk of warfare and scientific occurrences in this world. I would recommend this book to anybody captivated by chemistry, history, and other scientific events.

This book is not so much about the elements and science as initial impressions indicate. As the book goes on, it's more and more about people. It's engagingly written, but after 3/4 of it, I don't think I can finish it. Had I wanted biographies, I would have looked in the biography section.

About the author

Sam Kean is the New York Times bestselling author of Caesar's Last Breath, The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, The Disappearing Spoon, and The Violinist's Thumb, all of which were also named Amazon top science books of the year.

The Disappearing Spoon was a runner-up for the Royal Society of London's book of the year for 2010, and The Violinist's Thumb and The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons were nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award in 2013 and 2015, as well as the AAAS/Subaru SB&F prize.

His work has appeared in the Best American Nature and Science Writing, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, Psychology Today, Slate, Mental Floss, and other publications, and he has been featured on NPR's "Radiolab," "All Things Considered," and "Fresh Air."