Customer Reviews

The Disappearing Spoon

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book has come under a bit of criticism on these pages, seemingly for having an American author. Whilst it's true many of the measurements quoted are imperial, which is a bit of an anathema to modern science (I'm not sure many chemists use Fahrenheit these days), it doesn't take much too much effort to 'translate' them into metric. Since this is a popular science book aimed originally at a US audience, the American terminology and weights and measures, is more than forgiveable. If you really can't abide the thought of Jello or Hershey bars, and only ever give your height in cm and weight in Kg, then by all means pass on this book, but if you do, you are missing out an a treat.

At first I wasn't convinced. Kean's jovial writing style does grate at first. It's like he's trying to be Bill Bryson's (who gets the inevitable name check on the front cover) hip young nephew. Then there was a confusing, arm-waving description of electron configuration in atoms, that probably only makes sense if you already understand how it works (short of forcing my wife to read it, I can't easily verify this). But things rapidly get better. Kean style settles down (or I got used to it) and after that his descriptions and analogies are pretty much spot on.

There is very little hard science in this book. For that I recommend (as does Kean) John Emsley's Nature's Building Blocks). Instead Kean treats us to a social and industrial history of many of the elements, and the unknown (to most) ways in which they are important in our everyday lives. Kean wanders rather haphazardly through the table, often discussing elements that are far apart on the table together in the same chapter. This allows him to vary his discussion points from the traditional HHeLiBeBCNOF approach, making for a less proscribed read. There book also contains a fair amount of biography of the world's scientific giants. The rivalries, the friendships, the mistakes and the serendipitous discoveries, of some of the world's greatest Chemists and Physicists, are laid out in an informative and entertaining manner. In the final chapter Kean pontificates on the future of table, laying out some innovations in science, the like of which I hadn't heard.

I quite often fall asleep when reading this type of book, and I didn't once during the 'Disappearing Spoon'. Indeed it's testament to how good it is, that I read it gripped, well beyond midnight knowing that two fractious boys would wake me up in less than six hours. My chemistry days are long behind me, but Kean's book reminded me what I loved about the subject, and gave me pause to think that just maybe I was a little hasty in giving it up. Ignore the detractors, this is popular science at its best.

I completely disagree with the "Toxic prose style" review. I found the book highly enjoyable, and I thought the writing style was appropriate for the type of book, i.e. an engaging, thought provoking, sometimes witty and always fascinating account of the people and history behind the periodic table. I also found that the "gaffe" mentioned by that reviewer did not exist in my copy - it says "menthol" not "methanol". I suspect that either he has a defective copy, or that he needs to read it again properly. This excellent book is going to turn a fair number of kids (and adults) on to chemistry and science. It will not appeal to those who bought it by mistake, expecting a dry chemistry textbook.

This is up there with the best popular science books.

This is the second time I've read this book. The first time I took it out the library but it was so good that I had to buy my own. This is because I know I'll read it several times over. It's full of really interesting anecdotes and fascinating information about chemistry, history, physics, geology, etc.
If you're interested understanding the periodic table more then this is definately the book for you. I would go as far to say that every student (studying science or not) should have to read it.

I found this book, which has been rapturously reviewed and received, almost unreadable because of the supposedly popular style in which it's written. Crammed with crass similes that are supposed to be helpful, sopping with US frat-boy slang, it's also grossly inaccurate in many places. To quote but one gaffe from page 192:

"Peppermint cools your mouth because minty methanol seizes up cold receptors...."

I trust that Wrigley's will not be substituting methanol for menthol because it makes you go blind (this is on a par with a recent fungus book that listed the Death Cap as edible). There's little point advising people to avoid the book because it's clear that no-one can tell the difference any more.

I was given this book for Christmas 2011 and was really looking forward to reading it. Notice the four star review - that means I enjoyed it as an introduction to the Periodic Table and the chemistry (not physics) involved in its development. I enjoyed the stories behind the discovery of each of the elements, the characterization of the elements themselves (some of them are BAD boys!) and indeed the characters who discovered them. The writing style was easy going and in the style of Bill Bryson i.e. informative yet laid back, none of the intensive "listen to me, this is important!" that you so often get in science related books. I did, however, have to drop one star due to the number of times I had to re-read very many sentences and paragraphs because the grammer and punctuation did not make for flowing prose. Over use of the "-" instead of commas or brackets was irritating and the sometimes disjointed flow of the dialog confused me, almost like getting driving directions in kilometers when you are expecting miles. I had to reverse and go more slowly to ensure I stayed on track.

On the whole an excellent introduction to the Periodic Table spoilt only by my inability to hold on to Sam Kean's grammatical coat-tails tight enough.

All in all recommend reading for those with an interest in this iconic table of the elements.

This is a bit of a strange book. The title and descriptions might well pull in a lot of people who would like to know more about this 'periodic table' thing, but I believe that many of those readers will be left bemused and confused. The descriptions about the structure of the table are like listening to a mad professor who makes comments of lucidity and insight - if you listen hard. It's a confusing narrative - on the 'geeky' bits - and is NOT described in laymans terms.

I have a degree in Physics and Chemistry and although it was 30 years ago, I've maintained an interest in all matters scientific. But on many occasions I was re-reading passages wondering how it jumped from 'this' to 'that' - it's as though the author just expects you to know your stuff. Be warned - by the end of the second chapter you are expected to 'get' not only the various shells that electrons inhabit around the nucleus, but that we have p orbitals and s orbitals, Now I know about these things, but still had to shake my head and go again. The author then assumes your knowledge is at the right level and hence feels free to talk 'tecchie' - for example about how electrons in the rare earths inhabit shells in oddish ways and this makes the rare earths odd. Job done? Well, not for me, at any rate.

BUT on the other hand, the descriptions of the discovery and use of the elements is terrific and that alone makes the book thoroughly worthwhile to buy and read. My advice: if you don't know the geeky bits, don't worry, just read the informative narrative and you'll be amply rewarded.

As to the reviews by other writers which amount to some issue with 'dumbing down' - I don't get the problem. This is a book which is trying to popularise science - if you want a textbook 'heavy' version, there are plenty around. What is the author supposed to do, apart from trying to make what some would regard as a dry and boring subject, other than entertain, be amusing, and be informative.

So with the caveat that I started with, this book gets a big thumbs up overall from me.

Interesting and mostly fun read...it does exactly what it says on the tin. A voyage around the elements illuminated by human stories.

Two quibbles: It is quite US centric - the tale of DNA structure is told from the perspective of the failed US researcher - Pauling, rather than from the successful British/US team. I have no idea what Jell-O is m nor anything to do with Hershey bars.......this begins to grate after a while.

And second - in its attempt to not frighten the general reader it leaves out almost anything to do with actual chemistry. And the bits it does skirt round (the influence of electron shells in valency and bonding for example) it treats in such a juvenile 'gee whizz - think how clever the scientists must be to understand this stuff' sort of a way that it also grates.

I think that the author could have credited the reader with just a little more intelligence and tried to go a little deeper - maybe even with some diagrams - to show a bit more of how the table is constructed and the deep structure behind it. Instead, we are left with a series of mostly disconnected anecdotes which are entertaining but don't help much with an understanding of Chemistry.

But maybe I'm a bit biased towards my long ago subject :-)

SE, MSC (Chemistry)

"Between hydrogen at the top left and the man-made impossibilities lurking along the bottom, you can find bubbles, bombs, money, alchemy, petty politics, history, poison, crime and love. Even some science." - Sam Kean (stating perhaps the briefest possible synopsis of his THE DISAPPEARING SPOON

"Never underestimate spite as a motivator for genius." - Sam Kean

In THE DISAPPEARING SPOON, science writer Sam Kean attempts to do what Bill Bryson does with his magnificent A Short History of Nearly Everything, i.e. tap dance with humor over a wide-ranging subject for the entertainment and edification of the reader. In the Bryson's case, the arena is, well, nearly everything, while Kean's is a much more constricted stage, the Periodic Table of the Elements. The fact that the former performs more nimbly shouldn't dissuade one from reading the latter's book, which is, for the most part, a work of popular science that's likely to be both engaging and largely comprehensible to the sweaty masses. (It's currently in the mid-90s outside. Schvitzy work, this.)

Sam doesn't proceed through the squares of the Periodic Table in an orderly progression as one might progress across the squares of a hopscotch court from start to finish, but rather jumps around randomly, the element of the moment being determined by a larger context whether that be its relation to medicine, money, poisons, explosive weaponry, temperature, tools of measurement, gold rushes, human insanity, misguided science, artistic output, or the politics of the Nobel prize.

Occasionally, the author becomes a bit too arcane and the reader not heavily grounded in chemistry (or physics!) may find his/her eyes glazing over, such as when he discusses bubble chemistry, superatoms, quantum dots, the alpha constant, or electron jumps between orbitals. And when the narrative became wrapped up in the personalities and rivalries of the investigators involved in the discovery of the transuranic elements, I had to ask myself if I cared much about the soap opera. The answer was "no." Generally speaking, however, the tales Kean has to tell are interesting and worth storing away in memory to retell around the office coffee maker or as part of interesting small talk at the next cocktail party (even if there are no chemistry geeks in attendance). Who knows? It may be useful to rescue a lagging conversation by declaring that the longest word ever to appear legitimately in an English document not for the purpose of setting a length record names a protein in the tobacco mosaic virus:

"Acetyl seryl tyrosyl seryl iso leucyl threonyl seryl prolyl serylglutaminyl phenyl alanyl valyl phenyl alanyl leucyl seryl seryl valyltryptophyl alanyl aspartyl prolyl isoleucyl glutamyl leucyl leucylasparaginyl valyl cysteinyl threonyl seryl seryl leucyl glycylasparaginyl glutaminyl phenyl alanyl glutaminyl threonyl glutaminylglutaminyl alanyl arginyl threonyl threonyl glutaminyl valylglutaminyl glutaminyl phenyl alanyl seryl glutaminyl valyl tryptophyllysyl prolyl phenyl alanyl prolyl glutaminyl seryl threonyl valylarginyl phenyl alanyl prolyl glycyl aspartyl valyl tyrosyl lysyl valyltyrosyl arginyl tyrosyl asparaginyl alanyl valyl leucyl aspartylprolyl leucyl isoleucyl threonyl alanyl leucyl leucyl glycyl threonylphenyl alanyl aspartyl threonyl arginyl asparaginyl arginyl isoleucylisoleucyl glutamyl valyl glutamyl asparaginyl glutaminyl glutaminylseryl prolyl threonyl threonyl alanyl glutamyl threonyl leucylaspartyl alanyl threonyl arginyl arginyl valyl aspartyl aspartylalanyl threonyl valyl alanyl isoleucyl arginyl seryl alanyl asparaginylisoleucyl asparaginyl leucyl valyl asparaginyl glutamyl leucyl valylarginyl glycyl threonyl glycyl leucyl tyrosyl asparaginyl glutaminylasparaginyl threonyl phenyl alanyl glutamyl seryl methionyl serylglycyl leucyl valyl tryptophyl threonyl seryl alanyl prolyl alanylserine"

Finally, for a reason I can't really explain, one of the more fascinating paragraphs in the book was that describing the action of lithium to ameliorate mood swings in manic depressives.

I'm always happy to report on any volume that increases my knowledge about the world around me without being too impenetrable. I wish THE DISAPPEARING SPOON had been available to me in high school Chem 1A. So, despite a sporadic unevenness in presentation, I'm recommending it with four stars.

I actually enjoyed this book, mostly. However, when he writes about Goethe's 'Elective Affinities' he has got entirely the wrong end of the stick. He seems to be unaware that for most of the 18th century much of chemistry as it was taught, thought about, practiced and theorised, was built on the doctrine of affinities, often called (by those who disapproved of the baggage inevitably attached to the term 'affinities', 'elective attractions' (see e.g. Torbern Bergman's Dissertation on Elective Attractions). And this is what Goethe was referring to in his work. And indeed the novel gives a pretty coherent account of the theory as it was broadly accepted by the majority of chemists from the mid 18th century well into the 19th century. Whether Goethe's novel offered any piercing insight into human relationships I am not qualified to judge, but having done my doctoral research on the theory of chemical affinities, I am entirely qualified to point out that the author's comments on this work (and indeed his footnote on that section) are misleading, misjudged and factually incorrect. So if anyone reads it, PLEASE don't take these bits seriously!

The problem is that, having found this glaring error, which suggests at best some rather slapdash research into the more historical side of the book, I have to doubt the bits about which I am less qualified to judge. It's a shame, as we need more readable books about the history of chemistry. But we do need them to be correct!

Got this out of the library a while back, mainly for my wife who teaches chemistry, as a general book for her to maybe recommend to her students.

Overall is is quite good. It is a science book that is written in a style that could be described as conversational. It has some humour in it, and lots of facts, anecdotes and tales of the the individuals who made the science of chemistry what it is today. One of the most fascinating is the discovery of a natural nuclear power station that has been running for 1.7 billion years.

I have only given four stars as I feel that the book Periodic Tales, is much better at explaining the elements.