The disappearing spoon - Rambling Readers

English language

Published Jan. 22, 2010

ISBN:: 978-0-316-05164-4

(1 review)

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements, is a 2010 book by science reporter Sam Kean. The book was first published in hardback on July 12, 2010 through Little, Brown and Company and was released in paperback on June 6, 2011 through Little, Brown and Company's imprint Back Bay Books. The book focuses on the history of the periodic table by way of short stories showing how a number of chemical elements affected their discoverers, for either good or bad. People discussed in the book include the physicist and chemist Marie Curie, whose discovery of radium almost ruined her career; the writer Mark Twain, whose short story "Sold to Satan" featured a devil who was made of radium and wore a suit made of polonium; and the theoretical physicist Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who earned a …

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements, is a 2010 book by science reporter Sam Kean. The book was first published in hardback on July 12, 2010 through Little, Brown and Company and was released in paperback on June 6, 2011 through Little, Brown and Company's imprint Back Bay Books. The book focuses on the history of the periodic table by way of short stories showing how a number of chemical elements affected their discoverers, for either good or bad. People discussed in the book include the physicist and chemist Marie Curie, whose discovery of radium almost ruined her career; the writer Mark Twain, whose short story "Sold to Satan" featured a devil who was made of radium and wore a suit made of polonium; and the theoretical physicist Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who earned a Nobel Prize in Physics for her groundbreaking work, yet continually faced opposition owing to her sex.

3 editions

J. J. Zepfanman @...readers reviewed The disappearing spoon by Sam Kean

Review of 'The disappearing spoon' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Even if you took chemistry in college, you'll likely come across plenty of new concepts in the last 100 pages of this book. Kean does a great job giving us a crash course in the way atoms operate, but I still found myself getting lost in some of his brief descriptions of chemical processes.

That being said, the tales about the elements that Kean chooses are absolutely fascinating. He does a good job including key women in his stories and he fuses this human element with universal concepts surrounding the periodic table.