And the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements

Really a great and entertaining book. At first I thought it was going to be too technical (I am not a scientist), but it soon became an enjoyable and fun read. It is full of wonderful, interesting stories that span a long history of the elements. I highly recommend it to anyone with a curious mind.

You'd think that going through the Periodic Table of Elements would be high school 101. Far from it, with this gifted Sam Kean writer, personalities, the story behind the discovery, how the element resides in real life and a continuing entertainment of colorful tidbits related to each proton or neutron related to the elements' storyline. What a fun way to cruise the core makeup of our universe. Sam would have been the quintessential chemistry professor, those students would have been supremely lucky indeed; what a talent!

I did actually enjoy chemistry class, taught in the traditional boring way ;) I found it interesting how all the elements interact with each other and how to tell them apart, all that, so when I saw this book I figured I would give it a try. Immediately got sucked in because it tells such great stories - about science! Was telling all my friends all the cool things I learned from this book and was the smartest person in the room for a few minutes :D

What a fascinating book! I found the stories interesting an humorous. For the science student, how the periodic table made it to is current state is a classic example of the scientific method at work. Perhaps not a book for everyone, but for the curious individual the book will not disappoint.

Science, more specifically chemistry and still more specifically the periodic table and the elements. Mostly very good, some parts were a bit above my level of comprehension. A lot I didn't know. But . . . 28 pages with 105 of what should have been footnotes, good and informative, parked at the back. Disgusting. Another for my publisher (bleep)list.

Well written and researched, Sam Kean introduces the elements in a fun, approachable way. The relatively short vignettes on discovery, uses, attributes and properties launches a myriad of follow up inquiries and interests. Really fun and well written food for thought.

This was recommended to me by my Doctor, who also happens to be a person who probably missed his calling by becomming a general practioner instead of a medical researcher. It is one of those rare instances where a complex subject is reduced to manageable pieces and presented in an entertaining way. If all our text books in highschool and even at the college level were written using this method of presentation, our national level of education would be greatly enhanced.

I did take chemistry as a college student. It was not half as interesting as this book. While you will not know how to become a mad scientist by reading this book, you can live vicariously, and follow some of the more bizarre and important chemical explorations by real scientists. I did have a little problem with some of the authors more emphatic beliefs. He seems to doubt possibilities, that future scientists may discover to be true. Particularly his statements about quantum physics. But generally, Mr. Kean has written a very entertaining and readable book about the discoveries surrounding the periodic table. It would have been great to read this when studying chemistry in depth. I never really appreciated the more oddly named elements until reading about the characters who discovered them.

This is a fascinating read for anyone with even a passing interest in science. When studying the Periodic Table, few students realize the amount of work, backstabbing, and politics that are involved in the process. Even the most difficult concepts involving the elements are accessible to the reader. I particularly like the fact that the author addressed the contributions of women, who often did not receive credit for their research. This would be a good read for teachers and students of chemistry, or anyone with a passing interest of all of those squares on the table.

Why only two stars? For oftentimes wrong interpretation of scientific knowledge and facts plus a free interpretation of historical facts. Why any stars at all? For attracting public's attention to chemical science!

This book started off with good material but soon became very "me" centered and thus, tedious. Many elements were described primarily by their effect on the human body. I am sure there are many industrial uses for the elements, I would have liked much more of that.

For example, why do vanadium and molybdenum make steel so much stronger?

Also, I know I can find this elsewhere, but a book on elements ought to have pictures of the orbitals.

He talks about magic element numbers that are exceptionally stable, but never describes why. I would really like to know.

Yes, yes, the so-called 'disappearing spoon'. Again, as if it's something new. <Sigh> No, I won't spoil the come-on. Read the book yourself and be bored (probably) or interested (maybe, but for the wrong reasons), or really fu***ing amazed.

Just go away.

I was torn between giving this book three stars versus four stars. I finally settled on four stars for a couple of reasons. First, for anyone with even a casual interest in the elements on the Periodic Table, this book is definitely interesting. It discusses the history behind a bunch of elements that I never knew served much purpose. I learned in this book that there are molybdenum mines in Colorado, for example. Up until I read this book, I didn't know anything about molybdenum. There are also some really interesting stories about other elements and how they lead to huge advances in science. The author has a really great sense of humor, which is evident throughout the book.

The downsides to this book, and why I considered giving it three stars, are as follows. First, it is very jumbled. It doesn't go in chronological order, or even in ascending proton order. I get that there are reasons for this - some elements have a noteworthy historical or chemical relationship with another element even when they are far apart on the table. The author does group them together in a logical way, but I did find it frustrating to go back and forth to different time periods.

The second and more significant downside is that the author does get a little too technical. I took chemistry in college, but I am not a chemist or physicist by trade and I found that some scientific detail was lost on me and made the book drag. The author did do a good job of distilling some complicated facts into layman's terms, but sometimes he just went on a little too long with the technical detail. Chemists and physicists reading this book will undoubtedly get these sections more easily than I did, but I am not sure that the technical detail added a lot of color to the book. This is, basically, a history of the periodic table. The technical aspects are covered in far more detail in academic works, so I did sometimes feel that the author went into too much technical detail when providing an outside source for more information (for those interested) would have sufficed.

However, the reason I am giving this book four stars is because I did like the history and I did learn a lot about the various elements. And more importantly, this book references so many historical events that I felt compelled to do more reading about some of the topics he touched on briefly. My list of to-read historical nonfiction books grew while I read this, and I ended up reading more about certain topics on Wikipedia. I appreciate that the author was able to drum up so much interest in various lesser-known historical events or people, and there is a lot of value in that.

Also of note: I bought this book on the Kindle and I will say that it is one of the better formatted Kindle books I have read in awhile. The footnotes are easily accessible, and the author puts links in some of his footnotes that tablet or Kindle Fire users can click on. My only suggestion is that you bookmark where you are in the book if you are switching between devices. Syncing to the "last page read" will bring you to the footnote section and not the last location in the actual text.

Like many people who have taken a high school science class, I have seen the old, familiar periodic table of the elements hanging on a classroom wall on in the back of the chemistry textbook. I sometimes looked at that table, wondering about the strange letters and numbers on it. Obviously, H stood for hydrogen and O for oxygen, and C for carbon, but why Fe for iron, or Sn for tin and Au for gold? What was an atomic number and what was its relation to atomic weight? Little did I know that behind the periodic table were stories of mystery, adventure, and romance?

Sam Kean tells these stories in his wonderful book, The Disappearing Spoon. He takes the reader up and down the table with stories of elemental discoveries, their differing properties and their impact on the course of history. We learn of the invention of the table, usually attributed to Dmitri Mendeleev, though the story is a little more complicated. We learn of the hunt for elements to fill in the empty spaces and some of the deadly consequences of the discovery of the radioactive elements. How the elements changed the course of history and the results of wars. In the final chapter Kean goes above and beyond the familiar table to introduce the reader to newly discovered exotic forms of matter that might require a periodic table all their own.

Overall, Sam Kean does a marvelous job taking what might be considered a dry and dull table of symbols and numbers and bringing it to life. The Disappearing Spoon was a joy to read.

I was actually looking for The Poisoner's Handbook when I saw this one listed on the same page. I am glad I bought this used---and I'm really glad I read The P'sH first. That one was riveting. Apparently, the person who owned my copy before I did didn't get any farther in than I did. It felt like homework over a free weekend. Dry and so crispy, I started resenting having to read it. Hey, wait---I didn't have to! It's a sinker.

Sam Kean’s The Disappearing Spoon: Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements presents the history and function of the periodic table in an interesting, well crafted novel. With a degree in English and physics, Kean is quite qualified to be writing this book. This review’s purpose is to let you know how great this book is for students, chemistry fanatics, and people bored out of their minds.
The book takes liberties that the overall book benefits from. At the beginning of every chapter, Kean introduces multiple elements that serve as a guide for the chapter. The chapter then goes into detail about how these elements were discovered (in some cases created), benefitted science, or just flat out do nothing.
One of the greatest attributes of the book are the lessons woven into the chapters. Anyone with a passing interest in chemistry will appreciate his facts about the protons’ and electrons’ purpose in an atom. Kean talks about how every atom of an element has shells filled with different amounts of electrons and the stableness of octets, shells with eight electrons and no extra electrons. He also explains the natural nuclear reactor in Oklo, Gabon, Africa and how its uranium deposits acted as natural fission reactor for billions of years prior to mankind’s inception.
As mentioned before, Kean delves into the history of the periodic table and its many contributors like Glenn Seaborg. Seaborg was a well renowned chemist who served as both the lead on the Manhattan Project and advisor to President Ronald Reagan. He was the first to discover transuranic elements which he then would announce on the television show Quiz Kids. Another chemist Kean gives the spotlight to is Marie Curie. The Polish scientist married a French physicist who later began work on uranium. Their discovery that the electron bonds in radioactive elements have no effect on its radioactivity earned both of them the Nobel Prize in physics. Kean gives a great amount of detail for each of the scientists he chooses to focus on. Whether it be details about their backgrounds, discoveries, or tragedies, Kean does a fantastic job of presenting the given information.
Anyone with any level of interest in chemistry should read this book. Kean’s detailed analysis of the often overlooked history of the periodic table gives readers a new angle in which to view chemistry. The recounting of Oklo’s reactor’s discovery and Marie Curie’s constant stream of tragedies not only educates readers about the stories connected to the periodic table but gives them a sense of the gravity and importance of each individual story.

The sensationalistic and often crude writing style marks Mr. Kean as the journalist that he is. Hence, the writing is sometimes more agenda driven and biased than one likes to see in a science text. With the emphasis on historical anecdotes, however, this is more forgivable. His ability to so frequently associate chemistry to sex is an interesting, but hardly commendable, talent. I would personally mark the swearing level as moderate (or whatever word one would use to mean “somewhere between mild and severe”).

Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the style, I learned a ton from this book. One of the things I like most about it is its ability to show how chemistry links in with other sciences. It shows many cool relationships. Most high school science courses mistakenly take each subject alone and disassociate it from any other. This book would pretty effectively combat that failing. Hence, I think it would work very well as supplemental reading for a high school or college chemistry course. I would, of course, be sure to mention the above caveats to anyone I recommended this book to.

One needs no foundation knowledge in chemistry to enjoy this book, and the author gives a brief introduction to the nature of chemistry - how an atom is built up and why elements will (or will not) react with one another.
The author states that a great method for learning would be through anecdotes, and this is what the book delivers. Stories upon stories about discovery, experiment, poisonings, politics, failure and success associated with the establishment and growth of the periodic table of elements. Due to the sheer number of people that contributed to the discovery of the currently known chemical elements this book is full to the brim with information and anecdotal reference. Having studied some semesters in chemistry does help in absorbing the information of this book. But I will happily vouch that this book will prove an interesting read for experts and laypersons alike. Does every element get it's moment in the limelight? Well, yes; though some have quite a lot more stories associated with them than others.
The appendix contains an interview with the author, suggested topics for discussion and of course a periodic table for reference. And here I come to the one thing I would love to see improved upon in a future edition: the periodic table printed in this book does not the label the elements by name - only by their chemical symbol. During reading I regularly referred to the table provided with the book, and I eventually found myself referencing a table in a chemistry book instead. Spelling out the names of the elements would be a small addition and a layperson's learning might very well be improved - if nothing else it would be convenient for the reader.

There are a lot of great anecdotes and amusing science-related stories in this book. Because it is so well written, for a brief moment, you can even start believing that you have come to understand the physical laws beneath the stories. Then you come across a sentence like this one, purporting to explain why all metals seem to act the same way chemically: the author says that it is because they "bury their d-shell electrons in the equivalent of false-bottomed drawers, [where] those electrons end up shielded. The lanthanides [which are "even more alike" than metals] bury new electrons even more deeply than the transition metals, often two energy levels down." p. 26. For all of us who grew up with the concept of electron shells that are filled up, level by level starting with the nucleus, this explanation for metals' strange behavior makes no sense at all. And there is no more explanation than this. One comes away from this book wishing that science writers would take the lay public's desire for comprehensible explanations for the physical world that surrounds them more seriously.

Each chapter explains the history of and/or anecdotes involving a handful of elements. Some elements are explained ridiculously in-depth, others are merely mentioned in the life story of the person they are named after. The main problem with this concept is that many of the larger elements are boring. They are hunks of grey metal-ish stuff found in the ground, and they don't do anything. Other elements are so amazing that they really need at least their own book, if not more than one book.

Where this book really shines is the in-between elements. Europium is used in paper Euros because it is invisible but glows under a black light. Gallium looks like any other metal, but has a melting point of 84 degrees F (great for pranks). The first semiconductors were made of germanium instead of silicon. And on and on. Really interesting, entertaining stuff.

The writing leaves a bit to be desired. It gets dull when discussing complicated topics. The author has a tendency to drop in unnecessary analogies involving pop culture references, which make things more confusing and will render the book less relevant in 10-20 years.(Not that the science will be the same in 10-20 years, which I guess makes the book's relevance irrelevant, hm?)

Other complaints include: the periodic table at the back only lists abbreviations, and not the full names of the elements. If someone has all of the abbreviations memorized, they do not need to read this book. I know more of them than most people, but I get lost in the lanthanides and actinides. Also, the "footnotes" are in the back of the book instead of at the bottom of the pages, which is endlessly annoying.

But those are mostly nit-picky personal preferences. I came away from this book feeling entertained, and knowing significantly more about things like the history of chemistry, the future of chemistry, quantum mechanics, and radioactivity (although I don't know if that will hold true for people without previous education in chemistry to build upon).

The title of this book is The Disappearing Spoon and is written by Sam Kean. The main purpose of this book is to teach the reader new things about elements. It gives the reader information about new elements that you may have never heard of. It gives information about where does this element originate from, how it was discovered, who discovered it, and how it is used. Sam Kean, a major in physics, did a very good job on explaining the history of some of the elements in the periodic table, he also gave some advices on how to memorize the whole periodic table. This book was given to me for homework by my Chemistry teacher, Mr. Halkyard. The reason why this book was written is because Sam Kean wanted to teach people new stuff that they didn’t know about Chemistry. Although the book taught me many new stuff about elements, it dragged on too much.
Each chapter in The Disappearing Spoon focused on a new element. The book focuses also on the history of the periodic table by way of stories showing how each element affected the people who discovered the elements, for either good or bad. There are many scientist who are mentioned in this book such as, Marie Curie who her discovery of Radium almost ended her career. Even though this books accounts some stories of scientist who their career was almost ended by their own studies, this book also tells some true and great achievements in the field of science.
What I liked most about The Disappearing Spoon is how it manages to teach you many things. I personally like how Sam Kean gives you history about the element he is teaching you. He tells you who discovered it and how he discovered it. Sam Kean does a good job on telling how the element is used in modern day or also how it was used in the past. Although Sam Kean does a good job on teaching us stuff, he sometimes gives us too much information. I noticed that there were some chapters that were just plain useless. There was a chapter that I found interesting which was when he tells how different types of elements were used in the war, but then he goes on in other chapters about it. Another chapter that I found useless was Chapter 16. He talks about bubbles, even though a lot of people like bubbles this was another chapter that could have remained in his notes.
Although some stuff in this book was not worth mentioning, I enjoyed this book. The book teaches a lot, and it has a meaning to it. Some things about this book that are worth mentioning is how Sam Kean does a very good job on giving history on the element. It is important that some one know who found the element and from where did it come. The Disappearing Spoon is a great book for students who want to learn new stuff and teach new stuff.

When I was a teenager, the periodic table was something to be feared. A daunting list of elements to be memorized, if one aspired to get good grades in Chemistry and have a crack at the engineering and medical entrance tests. The Periodic Table was the enemy that had to be conquered, through rote memorization. Until, the day I discovered, "The Disappearing Spoon", by Sam Kean. Kean's wonderfully written narrative of the discovery of elements and the beginnings of Modern Chemistry, from the days of Alchemists to modern chemists, is a an epic tale of how the Modern Periodic table came to be. This collection of all elements known to Man kind (with a few exceptions) was discovered over centuries with the effort of so many great minds. There is an amazing story behind the discovery of each element, and Kean tells us these stories with such flair that the book doesn't even read like a very "Science-y" book. However, it is! The book has a fair number of passages that discuss hard Science, but whether you understand it or not, it doesn't take away the sheer joy of discovering what an amazing feat of scientific accomplishment the Periodic Table is. And in the same breath, it makes me gasp in awe at Same Kean, who did such a great job of writing this book. Thank you Sam!

The disappearing spoon misses a common thread. It ends up being a collection of interesting but highly disjointed facts. The quality of facts discussed too varies - topically, they range from the backstories of scientists to the physical/chemical properties of metals to their usage and the historic impact while always returning to the Periodic Table to provide the context.

As much as the author tries, the Periodic Table is a good invention but hardly revolutionary. The fact that it was nearly simultaneously developed by so many means it was almost always going come up in the 19th/20th century. While it certainly provided structure to the chemical sciences and lead to some amazing discoveries and predictions, it is more akin to highly logical social science laws than the precise physical sciences. It is bound to change the shape over the coming centuries and its utility too will dwindle in the computer days of instantaneous sorts, classifications, near limitless storage and instantaneous retrieval/processing.

Back to the book, the author reveals many surprising factoids. They are unlikely to stick with anyone not using these elements constantly, but they are entertaining in the book. Possibly, there is no other way to write about the elements that constitute our world - a subject that is important. From that point of view, until a better book comes along, this is a must read.

This is five-star science writing at its best. Although the book's main theme is the periodic table of the elements - chemistry's rallying point - the scientific fields that are discussed are quite diverse. They include: various branches of physics, geology, palaeontology, biology and several others. But that's not all. The scientific discussions are blended into a backdrop of archaeology, history - from ancient through medieval to modern - as well as the occasional political and social machinations. And last, but definitely not least, the author has enriched almost every page with the ever-present, always-fascinating, often-confrontational and sporadically-baffling human element that many authors often omit.

As pointed out by at least one other reviewer, there are some technical errors; I found some in the discussions involving radioactivity and nuclear physics. But these minor shortcomings do not detract from the book's important qualities.

The writing style is very lively, friendly, often humorous/tongue-in-cheek, entertaining, widely accessible, never boring and quite captivating. In short: a page-turner. This book can be thoroughly enjoyed by anyone, especially those with a fascination for science: how it works, how some discoveries came about, some of the people involved (ancient to recent) and science's wonderful history. It is also a special treat for science buffs. I believe that this work is an important contribution towards making science understandable and fun for the general population. It may even inspire future Nobel Prize winners. To the author: well done!!

"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.

The disappearing spoon of the title is one made of gallium. Gallium has a low melting point, and a favorite chemical student prank of the past was to cast a spoon of this metal and then hand it to someone when they served tea, in order to watch the face of the tea taker as the spoon melted in the tea cup. This is an example of the elemental anecdotes served up in this history of the periodic table and the discovery of elements.

Kean, a popular science writer, walks us through the development of the periodic table element by element. He explains how the table is structured- it's all about electrons; how many electrons an element has, and how they are arranged. This produces elements that are stable or which form compounds easily, or which decay, giving off radiation in the process. Some of the elements aren't even found in nature; they have to be created and observed in the lab because they only last a few seconds.

The author manages to make this understandable even to a chemistry failure like myself. He livens it up with stories of how the elements were discovered (or created) and the personalities of the people who worked on them. He tells us what the different elements are used for and how they can help- and hurt or kill- us. He helps us understand why silicon became the semi-conductor of choice, why gadolinium is used in MRIs, and how selenium, a necessary micronutrient, can drive you mad. If you like the history of science, you'll love this book, and you'll absorb some of the hard science along with it.

An enjoyable look at a seemingly boring topic -- the periodic table -- that gets into how it was created, what makes certain elements special, the politics of science and discovery, and more. I have no idea how this became a NYT best seller, but I'm delighted it did. It manages to make (most of) its science (mostly) accessible, and gets into some fun, fascinating stuff about the elements and how they have impacted our lives. Aside from a handful of overly dry stretches (which are always mercifully brief), this book manages to be engaging throughout. Good stuff. Highly recommended to casual science geeks.

Books like this are important reading for high school students. They often believe that science is a boring methodical march toward understanding.

Reading this entertaining and informative book would give them a glimpse into the luck, politics, and joy in science. Along the way a better understanding of the periodic table will also arrive.

The author does an excellent job of pointing out how women's work in science was often thwarted, belittled or outright stolen without sounding like a whiny complainer. He straightforwardly points out the historical framework in which women operated and the struggles they had to overcome to simply be allowed to participate. And its not all about Curie (who sometime seems like the only woman scientist who ever gets mentioned).

Plus you will laugh out loud reading this book,which you cannot say about many science books!

Good book for all you Chem teachers to assign for extra credit, be sure to enjoy it yourself as well.

Like many readers, I took chemistry in high school and didn't think much about it. But my dim memories of atoms with electrons and protons was more than adequate to allow me to follow this author's stories. Compared to other books I've read in the popular science genre, this book was by far the most enjoyable and most accessible. Even if you're not deeply interested in science, but only have a mild curiosity, you can enjoy this book.

Disappearing Spoon is not an airport book. It's not a book you'll (most likely) want to devour at one sitting. I found myself taking in one chapter at a time, discovering how chemistry can explain news events, stories and large-scale phenomena. For instance, I hadn't thought of "Silicon Valley" and "semi-conductors" from a scientific perspective. I hadn't considered how poisons and x-rays work.

Because each chapter is so different, readers may find they resonate with certain sections more than others. My own favorite was the chapter on astronomy, where Kean writes about the way scientists estimate the age of an object and even a solar system. The "disappearing spoon" is actually one of the less interesting examples provided by the author.

Also, because the author focuses on human interest stories (such as the race to claim recognition for DNA), the chemistry lessons sneak in. I'm not sure the book offers a pathway to motivate readers to dig deeper and learn more chemistry, but who cares? It's like spending some time with an expert - getting a backstage pass to understanding how and why many things really work.

Kean uses humor and great story telling to weave into your mind the power of chemistry to do good or evil. The anecdotes listed are priceless. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in the environment, water, air or just about any science in everyday life. If you are a teacher, this should be on your shelf and encourage extra credit reading for your students.

I found it to be a very interesting and knowledgeable work. The scientists discoveries and their work were put into the context of their real lives. Very interesting for all those interested in the history of science or those in science education. The book is written in readable chapters and while a basic knowledge of science is required the writing is clear and without technical jargon. A good read

A must read for young aspiring scientists and those eager to extend and deepen their understanding of the elements through a whimsical journey of chemistry and physics. Rich in content, yet frugal in overwhelming detail, this work was a joy to read.

Read this book. No matter how your mind works or what you find interesting something in this great work will be an item you always remember! I loved the easy fun read and the great easy to remember ideas.

Anyone who was ever intrigued by the periodic table will enjoy this book. Written on a level that most laymen can appreciate and with enough detail that science geeks will still enjoy. Fascinating anecdotes about the elements and the people who were instrumental in building the well known chart that sits in every science classroom today. Highly recommended.

My niece (a science teacher) recommended this book to me (a fellow nerd) and it hit me squarely between the eyes. I loved the connections the author makes between history's gifted scientists, real life events and the elements. Kean's book was actually exciting to read and I have paid it forward by purchasing a copy for a friend of mine.

Can the periodic table of the elements be interesting? Absolutely! A lot of good history here, even if you can't retain most of it. I took chemistry so long ago that there were only four elements in the table. That is old.

I liked the Science classes I took in high school but this book brought up so much that I had forgotten and so much that I'm pretty sure I had never run into before. However I am not a science geek and I had to re-read some chapters to be sure I understood it correctly. Still it was funny and gave me another prospective of the few science articles I do manage to read from the Scientific American.

Pat Bracey Greenwood

My chemistry teacher made us read this book. While Kean's quirky writing style appeals to some, I didn't like it at all. I could have learned all the facts from this book 10x faster than reading it this way. Sure, it makes chemistry "fun," but there are better ways to spend time having fun. The reason why I gave this book 3 stars, though, is because the book took longer than the expected delivery time.

This book is incredible and is highly recommended for anyone looking for a completely different perspective on the periodic table that we learned so much about and though we knew so well. This is jam packed with fascinating historical tales of the elements. A truly fun and engaging read

This book is full of some really great stories about the discoveries and uses of many of the elements. I greatly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, many of the chapters seemed to skip many of the elements listed in the chapter headings almost entirely , and I wish there had been more than a brief mention of some.

As a would-be envormental scientist (turned industrial engineer to stave off starvation in that era), I have always been fascinated by the near self-fulfilling periodic table. The author enriched my understanding by both anecdote and fact greatly helping me to recognize anew the 'how' our knowledge of the basic structure of our universe has grown through the years. Simply put, would I buy it again? Yes! I have left it on my Kindle and find myself going back to read various portions. Tazman

I selected this book as part of my curriculum for the chem class I was teaching. The group of students were very diverse and the goal was to provide some connection point to pair with the textbook. The book was fantastic. The information moves in a logical manner and it was easy to select reference points and diagrams to go along with the reading. The reading level was also perfect for reading aloud. There were some words and names that the students needed help with. General reading comprehension was easily reached by all of my students.

I loved reading the book. For science readers and readers who want some interesting and accessible science, this is the book.