| 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
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $13.12
as of 9/9/2010 13:43 CDT details
You Save: $11.87 (47%)
New (49) Used (15) from $10.94
Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 195
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
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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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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| 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:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
 Straight to Library September 8, 2010
Malcolm Myles
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
In accordance with the Golden Rule...
The Disappearing Spoon will be an addition to our local library. You may loan it from there if needed.
 Will recommend the book to my kids September 7, 2010
Andriy Palamarchuk (Boston, MA USA)
Great overview of elements, their history, usage, contains tons of interesting trivia. Describes some recent mind-bogging discoveries. The author makes even drier topics easy to read about. While reading the book I actually loudly laughed a few times, especially on the chapter about the kilogram standard. After reading I realized that a lot if important knowledge got stuck in my mind or revived without me even noticing this.
I plan to give this book to my kids when they start learning inorganic chemistry.
Lots About Chemists, Little About Chemistry September 7, 2010
Ralph Peteranderl (Beverly, MA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
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