The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 18 Summary/Reflection

Summary

In this Chapter, the NIST and BIPM, two bureaus that focus on being as precise with all measurements as possible. One of the most important of all measurement tools, the kilogram. The International Prototype kilogram was a cylinder that weighed exactly one kilogram and scientists went to absolutely ridiculous measures to keep it this way. However, when it started to shrink mysteriously, they gave up this method. Im going to kill my self

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 19 Summary/Reflection

Summary

  In the last chapter, it introduces the rarest element known on Earth, astatine. The next rarest element in francium, which can be explained through a long set of decayed elements and probabilities. After scientists were playing with heavy elements and stability, they came up with the idea of the “island of stability.” However, this theory basically rests on francium and now to stabilize the nuclei of elements. Based on this theory, scientists have been able to fill in the last rows of the periodic table with hypothesized elements all dealing with Latin and other names that scientist considered normal to them.

     Then the question to many scientists was the limits of the periodic table. The chapter then moves into how the periodic table is set up including future changes that might happen with the discovery of other matter and quantum dots. Over the years there have been hundreds of ways of organizing the periodic table but all go back to one, the original used by Bohr. Lastly, the author mentioned how we might one day make a new, re-designed, and impressive periodic table in the future that would even surprise Aliens. 

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 17 Summary/Reflection

Summary

In this Chapter, Donald Glaser, who came to the idea of using bubbles from beer to find to conjure up exotic and fragile species of particles. Watching his beer glass, Glaser was able to take part in the creation of the Cloud chamber. 
     The chapter also moves onto smaller stories of Roman’s love of calcium. Then introducing Rutherford as basically that of an ogre but based on his radioactive experiments he became famous.Rutherford and Soddy were able to prove that elements could mutate into other elements. He then used this knowledge and discovered helium particles being produced from this decay as bubbles. This theory went on to be used as a device to help find the age of the earth by measuring the amount if helium trapped in rocks.

The Disappearing Spoon Chapter 16 Summary/Reflection

1. Tin alpha and beta shapes are significantly different, but do constitute as different forms of matter.
2. It is only under extremely low temperatures when it begins to defy certain rules that it can combine with other elements (what a rebel).
3. Maser = Microwave Amplification By Stimulated Emission of Radiation.  Laser = light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.
4. Neodymium can help make the world's strongest magnets
5. Atoms, at low temperatures, occupy the lowest quantum state.

Summary

Back when nobody had been able to reach the south pole, Robert Falcon Scott and his team attempted to be the first to reach the south pole.  However, they arrived about a month late and found they were beat by a Norwegian.  While returning, they died due to tins properties in very low temperatures.  Their tin containers had broken down in the cold temperatures and spoiled their food, water, and fuel.  

Like tin, when most atoms or particles achieve extremely low temperatures, they begin to exhibit traits that they shouldn't.  For example, Argon, a noble gas, should not be able to combine with anything.  But when cooled to extremely low temperatures, it begins to combine with certain elements.  One new method of lowering the temperature of atoms to the extreme was laser cooling.  By bumping photons onto particles at the right angles, the particle begins to cool to very low temperatures.  This eventually led to the discovery of Bose Einstein Condensate, a new state of matter.

Reflection

I really enjoyed this chapter because it's a way of telling you that everything you had learned till now was wrong, but also right. The Bose Einstein Condensate part I found extremely interesting, I actually learned this in Academic Decathlon, I am normally used to only hearing about solids, liquids, gases, and occasionally plasmas.

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 15 Summary/Reflection

1. He is the first scientist mentioned in the book, didn't teach at a University or College
2. Reports ovary, no clear evidence has arisen of its existence today.  Differences are that the Megalodon actually existed at some point in history.
3. Focuses on one aspect of a single appearance of a trait and tries to prove it.
4. Cold fusion is the fusion of elements at room temperature. Similar to perpetual motion machines in that it is able to create energy which is against the laws of physics.
5. Rontgen discovered X-rays.  He tried to prove himself wrong before releasing his results, pretty smart.

Summary

Pathological science has been influenced by betraying elements.  When the megalodon teeth were discovered, they were able to test the age of the teeth by measuring the amount of manganese on it.  But, some teeth had way less manganese than they should have, leading to speculations that the megalodon existed not so long ago or is still alive. Later on this was disproved, but people still believed they existed because of this piece of evidence so I think it'll take some while for people to realize. The discovery of cold fusion would also be another example.  Two scientists had claimed to have found a way to induce fusion by combining heavy water with palladium.  

Reflection

This chapter was overall better and was more interesting than the previous chapters.  I enjoyed the stories about the megalodon, Kean is a really good storyteller, the massive ancient relative of the shark.  The whole situation with Pathological science reminded me of pseudosciencet.  I also really enjoyed the story about X-rays and how Roentgen believed he was going crazy when he first witnessed them.

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 13 Summary Reflextion

1. Steel, White Gold, Stellite
2. change in form.
3. FeS2
4. It hides itself in average light, but when put under UV light it glows revealing its the real thing.
5. The aluminum is supposed to signify greatness because it is expensive, but because it is almost dirt cheap now, it doesn't belong.
6. If gold and platinum were easier to get, their prices would increase. Aluminum.

Summary

Since the beginning of human civilization, elements have been used as currency. Today, we use paper money being made out of paper and coins made out of zinc, copper, and nickel, but back then people used metals like gold and silver as currency. However, metals, unlike other types of money are easy to counterfeit due to their similarities with cheaper metals.  The solution is alloys.  Alloys are combinations of elements designed to make them stronger or more resistant to corrosion.  When alloys are used as money, it is easier to counterfeit them since certain proportions can be changed but the alloys will appear the same.

Gold is a element people know as the source of wealth and value. Kean also mentions today's problem with counterfeit money and the efforts done by the European Union to find the fake money. The element europium is the hero in the mission to find counterfeit money along with fluorescence. Europium and fluorescing dye are combined to be used on the euros. By seeing the euro with the naked eye, the euro appears to be a certain color, but when put under a special laser, a charcoal sketch of Europe appears to show an authentic euro. However, after Charles Hall found a way to get pure aluminum easily, its prices plummeted.

Reflection

This chapter dealt more with the subject of wealth than the previous did about politics. Money makes the world go 'round.

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 14 Summary/Reflection

1. Johann Von Goethe was a German man who studied in every field that existed literally .  He was great in literature, but in science, whatever was more aesthetically pleasing he believed in, my spirit animal.
2. To establish a way of organizing the elements based on properties.  Iron, nickel, and cobalt, could be considered a triad due to nickels mass being a mean of Iron and Cobalt.
3. Predicted the effects of the discovery of radiation in the world
4. His brain lacked a certain salt that changed his behavior, i guess you can say it made him salty (pun intended)
5. Alloys

In chapter 14, Kean talks about how money and science come hand and hand. As science became more and more expensive, the people who could actually do the mind blowing discoveries were the people who had the money to do it (obviously that’s pretty messed up). The author then turns to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who was a writer that enjoyed making bold claims or statements about science and politics even though he wasn't really an expert in either subjects. One major bold claim Goethe made was that of double replacement reactions. He used the analogy of marriage to describe it, the whole thing would work by having each person falling in love with another person in the other marriage. Although Goethe made absurd claims, he did help launch the career of another Johann, Johann Dobereiner.

                      Robert Lowell s then lastly mentioned. Lowell wasn't all there. He suffered through episodes of madness, his best work came from them. People did however enjoyed the work of Lowell. One time he was stuttering in front of a friend's house that he was the Virgin Mary. Another episode had him trying to stop cars by spreading his arms like Jesus. Nothing was available back then to help with this madness until lithium came along. Lithium became the first mood stabilizer which I honestly need some right now. Lithium prevents the next episode from happening and it regulates the proteins that makes this happen.

                      This chapter was very interesting to me because it focused on literary artists and their effect even in the smallest bits by the elements.  The stories about Mark Twain were cool too.

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 12 Summary/Reflection

1. Radiation poisoning, after working with radioactivity for all their lives.
2. Marie Curie discovered Polonium and Radium, Curium was named after her, and all of them were radioactive,sadly her discoveries killed her.
3. Hevesy hid gold from the Nazi’s by dissolving it into a substance that looked normal.  He then extracted the gold to recast them into the Nobel prizes.
4. They worked together on many things, but Meitner had a Jewish background, she was unable to publish her results on Fermi’s mistake (because Nazi’s are evil).  Hahn then took the credit.

Summary

 Marie Curie (aka Marie Sklodowska) was born in Poland (where Nazis were born), a country that was often controlled by other countries (Germany) and could never truly gained its independence until the after WWII.  She and her family all worked on radioactivity and its effects (naturally very dangerous).  She named the first element she discovered after Poland in order to push the Polish independence movement.  Like Poland, the element was highly unstable and turned into other elements very quickly (or countries).  Her other discovery, Radium, was more useful and congratulated in the Scientific world.

Hevesy, influenced by Curie, used what he learned from their works into developing radioactive tracers.  Niels Bohr (who added onto the planetary model) had supposedly predicted element 72 through only quantum mechanics.  This led to a divergence between chemistry and physics.  Apparently, 3 people before Bohr had already predicted the element, but due to being “no-names”, no one trusted them.  Later on, Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner worked together to disprove Fermi’s discovery of new elements, and through this process discovered that Fermi had actually observed nuclear fission.  Hahn later cheated her out of a Nobel prize, but not a element name.

Reflection

This was like Academic Decathlon all over again. Most of the stuff mentioned I already knew so it was almost like review. It was interesting, however, to know a little bit more about the lives of the scientist.

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 11 Summary/Reflection

1.Nitrogen is part of many organic compounds.

2.  Most are associated with elements that are similar to them, compared to biology they contradict each other.

3.Potassium and sodium are both members of the group called the Alkali metals.  We don't keep them because of how easily they react with the environments around them.

Summary

In his chapter Kean begins to compare elements in terms of biology so that all elements are fairly predictable until they are put next to biology.  Take nitrogen, although it makes up 80% of the earth's atmosphere, when inhaled as a pure substance it's pretty dangerous.  It creeps its way into the body (like a ninja. Haha the element of surprise) and slowly knocks us out and we die (the end).  Titanium, when the body detects foreign material, whether good or bad, it surrounds it with collagen to prevent contamination.  This does not occur with titanium, which makes sense why titanium is often used for prosthetics.

The body has evolved in many ways to combat intruders.  One of the primary ways that the body prevents harmful exposure to certain chemicals is through the senses.  Due to similarities between certain elements, some can pass through “disguised” (like a spy)  as others.  This is what occurs between potassium and sodium.

Reflection

This chapter was kinda boring (“biology is not a science”-Mr. Apodoca). However, the story about Gandhi and India on iodine salt was interesting. Its interesting how elements react to our bodies compared to non living things.

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 10 Summary/Reflection

1.Copper is like a sterilizing chemical, it prevents bacteria's ability to produce chemicals needed for mitosis.
2. Since electrons can only match up with electrons of opposite spin, and Gadolinium, with many unpaired electrons, allows it to connect with atoms that don't have full shells.  Oftentimes, this is used in cancer to destroy cancer cells, but if not properly flushed out, it can harm the body.
3. “Take a look at the ‘blue man’ on the internet by typing in Argyria” … wtf thats so weird he’s literally blue.
4.Pediazole, Sulfanitran, others
5.D-Dopa (i think)

Summary
    In this chapter Kean discusses medical properties of elements. We know that elements influence the body in horrible ways (cancerous ways), luckily there are also elements that do the opposite.  The most common ones we see in the everyday world and been used for many years are copper and silver.  In both cases, they neutralize a bacteria's ability to produce chemicals that allow it to reproduce.  They can be compared to birth control for the bacteria,  silver however, can turn the skin blue if taken in excess.
There are elements that react better in chemical compounds than they do by themselves. On the other hand when dealing with chemicals one must consider their chirality (right handed or left handed so the element has to be in a certain position).  Chirality was first discovered by Pasteur through tartaric acid.  An important quality can also be when it comes to chemicals is the bodies and its influence on the chemicals.  But like Prontosil, on its own, it cannot do anything to bacteria.  Ingested by a mammal, the cells of the mammal change it to sulfonimide, which then kills the bacteria.  This discovery led to the creation of many more “sulfa” drugs.  Later on, continued research with chirality created many more drugs including a remedy for Parkinson's using Rhodium as a catalyst for only L-Dopa

Reflection
Overall, I enjoyed this chapter due to its intriguing stories that had me constantly wondering about the effects of certain drugs.  Much of the background information goes into depth and has a different approach to how you should remember things. It actually brings up my motivation to continue reading.

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Chapter 9 Summary/Reflection

1.Cadmium is strange as it replaces elements in the body necessary for regular bodily functions.  However, Cadmium has almost now good properties but apparently it's good in that it was able to kill Godzilla.
2.Thallium sneaks into the body, like a ninja (the element of surprise, pun intended) where like cadmium, it extracts necessary elements and replaces them.
3.  When considering radioactivity, the neutrons emitted often mess with or destroy DNA, proteins, etc.  But like neutrons, Thallium, can undo protein bonds rendering them useless in any form in the body.
    4. Bismuth is both poisonous and radioactive, and serves as a sort of transition between the poisonous and radioactive groups on the periodic table.  But it isn't as bad as others and can be used in medicine or as a ornament for your table.
5.Thorium, mine lamps and Americium, smoke detectors

Summary
    In this chapter, Kean first discusses that the biological compounds are much more delicate than those used in chemistry; this has led to a section of the periodic table to be called the “Poisoner’s Corridor”.  First, in this corridor is Cadmium,  Cadmium replaces elements needed in the body and expels them out.  Cadmium’s effects were first recognised in Japan where it killed miners and farmers and those who survived had many diseases. Thallium acts the same as Cadmium but is able to mimic a wider range of elements and cause more damage. Bismuth, which is almost like a transition between the poisonous metals and the radioactive ones.
    Then we come to the radioactive poisons.  Examples from the radioactive poisons can best be seen in David Hahn, who tried to build a nuclear reactor in his shed.  Entranced by chemistry and seeking to aid the world in terms of power, he attempted to create a fission reactor in his shed.  For this, he attempted to create a breeder reactor (a reactor that's able to sustain itself by continuously creating fuel).  What he needed was Uranium and Thorium, but both ended up giving him health problems in the future (which would probably be cancer).  Americium, an element found in smoke detectors is a good source of alpha particles (helium nuclei which also causes health problems).

Reflection
    Overall I enjoyed this chapter due to its humorous references of deadly chemicals. I also liked the reference to the Godzilla movie and the irony. Its funny how they created a monster that lives off nuclear energy but couldn't handle cadmium.

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean chapter 8 Summary/Refletion

1.Technetium received its name from the many times it was supposedly discovered.
2.Vulcanized rubber & penicillin.
3.He was scientist with a large ego who often disregarded results that differed from his. As a result, he lost out on discovering the double helix structure of DNA.
4. -Phosphorus is the material that makes up match heads
-Urine was used to discover phosphorus

Summary
Glenn Seaborg and Al Ghiorso brought the hunt for new elements to the next level, but the search did not stop there and soon many others were involved in the search.  Because of this, America skyrocketed in scientific advances during WWII mainly because of the massive influx of refugee scientists that fled to avoid Nazi Persecution or any other suppressive government.  Among these refugees were scientists Linus Pauling and Emilio Segre.  The both scientist were likely to become colleagues but because of their large egos it was not possible.
Ironically much of science is discovered by or through accidents; however, the accidents committed by the scientists Pauling and Serge are ones not to be proud of.  Examples of “good” accidents was the many instances element 43 was found for the “first time”.  Constant disagreements allowed for ideas about the element to be discussed and refined into what we know about it today.  Emilio Segre mistakenly labeled radioactive elements as transuranic. Linus Pauling could have discovered the double helix structure of DNA, but like many egotistical genius, he did not progress and his ego made him ignore one of his contemporaries who exposed him on his experiments with “dead” DNA.

Reflection
    This chapter was a bit more entertaining than previous chapters because it focuses more on the mistakes of scientists rather than what they got correct or what became fact.  I liked its humor, i think all good books should have humor, especially when it dealt with the scientists with personality flaws.  In this chapter, I learned about the mishaps that often occur in science and how they aren't always bad things.