The Disappearing Spoon

 The Disappearing Spoon

Read: Feb 2021

Periodic table is like a puzzle, which scientists have been trying to solve for almost two centuries now, like a child fitting her Lego blocks . Last hundred years have seen this endeavor becoming fiercer with scientists furiously racing towards filling the vacant blocks and thus get the naming rights.

Each of these two letter abbreviations come alive with background stories of triumph, tragedy, and travesty. Marie Curie discovered two radioactive elements: she named first of these Polonium, after her beloved but non-existent homeland of Poland. Now it is known more as the poison of choice for murdering Russian dissidents. Curie would have been mortified. The brilliant physicist Enrico Fermi was awarded Nobel for discovering element 93 in 1934. Only later it occurred that he had discovered fission by accident and not a new element. When element 93 was later discovered by another US physicist, Nobel committee had to twist itself in knots to award the prize again for discovering the same element twice.

The title of the book comes from the element Gallium (named after Latin word for France by its French discoverer). Gallium looks and feels like Aluminum at room temperature but melts at 84°F). The prankster chemists would serve their guests tea with spoon made of Gallium. The guest would watch in horror as the spoon would disappear while stirring in the tea cup.

Absolutely recommended for those for whom the periodic table chart in the chemistry class was an obstacle course. That multicolored plastic chart would come alive for you. Period.