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

Sam Kean

Start date: June 1, 2025

Finish date: June 30, 2025

Why we're reading this: June 2025 Collection Read
[close] June 2025 Collection Read

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Nov 30, 2016 Rachel N. rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2016, pbt-nonfiction-100, nonfiction, science, chemistry, periodic-table, elements

Kean mostly describes tales involving each element on the periodic table. Some tales are more relevant to the element than others. The not so relevant ones are more about the person the element was named after than the element itself. He also describes the creation of the periodic table, the creation of new elements and the search for rare elements. I'm a biology major but I understood most of the chemistry in the book, the bubble chapter went way over my head. There is a periodic table in the b ...more

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Aug 31, 2010 Martha marked it as to-read

Shelves: history, holding-pattern, science

I'm only on page 51 which is about 14% of the book, but I'm loving this book. I was miserable in Mr. Dempsey's chemistry class. I am not a science minded person ... probably has to do with left brain/right brain type of thinking. I'm going to date myself here, but Sam Kean makes the periodic table as much fun as Mr. Wizard made science experiments fun!!! I hope he continues to write about science or anything else he wants to tackle!! ...more

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Apr 02, 2012 Kathy rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-non-fiction, read-science, x-feb-12-thru-jan-13

A B in high school chemistry indicated that a science career was not for me, but I still enjoy and appreciate the intriguing world of science, especially in story form and simplified explanation of phenomena. The Disappearing Spoon fit my demands almost perfectly, except in the few instances when the science got too dense for me.

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