chemistry

I need to confess that I gave up reading this book.  I thought it was because my science knowledge was so abysmal and this theory was bolstered by numerous reviewers praising Kean for his accessible writing.  But I kept having these niggling thoughts that it wasn't all my fault.  And in my defense I do like science writing.  Each year I devour The Best American Science Writing.  This series gets me excited about science which is what science books for the lay person should do.  Kean was just too disjointed for me. Maybe the periodic table of the elements is too much for me but I would have

Equal parts science and history, Sam Kean’s The Disappearing Spoon takes the reader on a journey through the periodic table of elements and the people who discovered them.  This quick and candid read is full of fun facts and asides—did you know that nineteenth century mercury laxatives have allowed historians to accurately trace Lewis and Clark’s path west? And that the myth of Midas might have sprung from the zinc deposits that made his kingdom flush with lustrous brass?  But it’s also full of tales from the darker side of chemistry, such as Fritz Haber’s drive to invent chemical warfare and