For the love of science, read “The Disappearing Spoon”

By: Griffin Onderchain

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“The Disappearing Spoon” by Sam Kean is a collection of real stories about the author’s fascination with the periodic table. These stories take place through different eras of human history, from ancient Greece to World War II. They chronicle the lives of the amazing scientists who were just as fascinated as Kean about the world they live in.

For readers looking for a single narrative with a standard structure, this book is not going to be a fun ride for you. However, if you have even the smallest interest in science, this is a must-read. Reading this book is like listening to your friend talk about their favorite topic. That being said, the content of this book leaves you feeling the same way the author writes: Like a child who knows nothing, yet fascinated by everything.

Although every story in this book is awe-inspiring in its own right, one story stuck out in my mind and happens to be the reason the book is called “The Disappearing Spoon.” The main character of this story is the element Gallium—an interesting metal that at room temperature is a solid block, but above body temperature melts into a liquid.

Scientists who were looking to play a prank on their guests created spoons made of this mysterious metal and give them to guests to stir their tea with. When the tea heated the spoon above body temperature, the spoon would melt.

Contained in the title of each chapter is a list of different elements which will probably cause someone not already familiar with the periodic table to be confused at first. As the chapter proceeds, each element is woven into the fabric of the stories that make up the chapter. The stories of each chapter fit together like a puzzle, feeling like a journey through a previously undiscovered corner of our universe.

Kean does a remarkable job distilling the beautiful chaos that makes up quantum physics into language that anyone can read and understand. Kean then elegantly incorporates those difficult topics into chapters in a way that makes the book read more like science fiction than about events that affect us everyday.

However, “The Disappearing Spoon” does suffer from one main problem that demotes what could’ve been an amazing book to merely great. Although Kean does his best to break down incredibly advanced topics, some of them are just too complex unless you have a ton of previous knowledge.

There were various points in the book where he would get into submolecular physics and different aspects of quantum mechanics that were just too high level. Even though I was astounded by what the story portrayed, I would often get caught up in the confusion of little details, taking me out of the book.

That being said, now that spring is rolling in and summer is just around the corner, “The Disappearing Spoon” is the perfect summer read. It’s not difficult to get into and once it sucks you in, just like a black hole, there’s no way out.

“The Disappearing Spoon” definitely rekindled my love of science. For those who are fascinated by the laws of nature, this book should certainly be on your summer wish list.