The Disappearing Spoon

The Disappearing Spoon
Author: Sam Kean 2010 375 pp
My rating: 3*
Started October 18 2010, Finished October 29 2010

The subtitle of this book, “And other true tales of madness, love, and the history of the world from the periodic table of the elements” pretty much says it all. There is no overarching theme, just a series of interesting stories from the world of elemental chemistry. While I found it interesting and enjoyable, its disjointed nature left me without much of an impression. In two weeks, I probably won’t remember much of “The Disappearing Spoon” at all.


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Unlike modern pills, these hard antimony pills didn’t dissolve in the intestines, and the pills were considered so valuable that people rooted through fecal matter to retrieve and reuse them. Some lucky families even passed down laxatives from father to son. (22)

“But since this Japanese Vulcan died with his secret, it was lost for five hundred years -- proof that superior technology does not always spread and often goes extinct” (89)
This is faulty logic, something happening “once” is not “proof” that it “often” happens.

… scientists might soon be able to build “matter lasers” that shoot out ultra-focused beams of atoms thousands of times more powerful than light lasers, or construct “super solid” ice cubes that can flow each other without losing their solidity. (293-4)