The Disappearing Spoon

The Disappearing Spoon
Author: Sam Kean
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2010-07-12
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0316089087

From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes incredible stories of science, history, finance, mythology, the arts, medicine, and more, as told by the Periodic Table. Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why is gallium (Ga, 31) the go-to element for laboratory pranksters? The Periodic Table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, betrayal, and obsession. These fascinating tales follow every element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, and in the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. The Disappearing Spoon masterfully fuses science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, and discovery -- from the Big Bang through the end of time. Though solid at room temperature, gallium is a moldable metal that melts at 84 degrees Fahrenheit. A classic science prank is to mold gallium spoons, serve them with tea, and watch guests recoil as their utensils disappear.

Spoon River Anthology

Spoon River Anthology
Author: Edgar Lee Masters
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 147
Release: 2012-03-02
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0486112101

DIVAn American poetry classic, in which former citizens of a mythical midwestern town speak touchingly from the grave of the thwarted hopes and dreams of their lives. /div

A Spoonful of Sugar

A Spoonful of Sugar
Author: Raymond Rowe
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2007-01-16
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780789030757

Find out WHO said WHAT about pharmacists and the work they do A Spoonful of Sugar is a collection of quotations from sources as diverse as Shakespeare, Pope John Paul II, and Gilbert and Sullivan that comment on the work and profession of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists. This enlightening book is divided into 30 chapters by individual topics and grouped by subject matter that includes medicines at the pharmacist’s disposal, the adversaries he faces, his labors, and the scientific basis of modern medicines. The quotes—which are also indexed by author—reference everything from aspirin to coughs to emulsions, providing an enlightening read that doubles as a quick and reliable classroom resource. Editors Ray Rowe and Joseph Chamberlain draw on their combined experience of nearly 70 years working in the pharmaceutical industry and pharmaceutical publishing to present more than 1,000 entries from scientists and health professionals, educators and economists, clerics and poets—even advertising slogans! Their criteria for selection is just as diverse, listing quotes that are thought-provoking, influential, witty, memorable, and even pithy. The editors provide a detailed index of keywords to help you find a half-remembered quote and whenever possible, a brief reference to the source of the quotation is included. Some examples from A Spoonful of Sugar: “Give me an ounce of civit, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination.”—Shakespeare “A skilful leech is better far than half a hundred men of war.”—Samuel Butler, English satirist “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson “A man of very moderate ability may be a good physician, if he devotes himself faithfully to the work.”—Oliver Wendell Holmes “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patients while Nature cures the disease.”—Voltaire “There are two kinds of statistics: the kind you look up and the kind you make up.”—Rex Stout, American writer “When meditating over a disease, I never think of finding a remedy for it, but instead, a means of preventing it.”—Louis Pasteur and many more! A Spoonful of Sugar is an entertaining and enlightening reference resource for practicing pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists, and for anyone interested in the pharmaceutical fields.

Consider the Fork

Consider the Fork
Author: Bee Wilson
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2012-10-09
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 0465033326

Award-winning food writer Bee Wilson's secret history of kitchens, showing how new technologies - from the fork to the microwave and beyond - have fundamentally shaped how and what we eat. Since prehistory, humans have braved sharp knives, fire, and grindstones to transform raw ingredients into something delicious -- or at least edible. But these tools have also transformed how we consume, and how we think about, our food. In Consider the Fork, award-winning food writer Bee Wilson takes readers on a wonderful and witty tour of the evolution of cooking around the world, revealing the hidden history of objects we often take for granted. Technology in the kitchen does not just mean the Pacojets and sous-vide machines of the modern kitchen, but also the humbler tools of everyday cooking and eating: a wooden spoon and a skillet, chopsticks and forks. Blending history, science, and personal anecdotes, Wilson reveals how our culinary tools and tricks came to be and how their influence has shaped food culture today. The story of how we have tamed fire and ice and wielded whisks, spoons, and graters, all for the sake of putting food in our mouths, Consider the Fork is truly a book to savor.

The Icepick Surgeon

The Icepick Surgeon
Author: Sam Kean
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2021-07-13
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0316496529

From a New York Times bestselling author comes the gripping, untold history of science's darkest secrets, "a fascinating book [that] deserves a wide audience" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Science is a force for good in the world—at least usually. But sometimes, when obsession gets the better of scientists, they twist a noble pursuit into something sinister. Under this spell, knowledge isn’t everything, it’s the only thing—no matter the cost. Bestselling author Sam Kean tells the true story of what happens when unfettered ambition pushes otherwise rational men and women to cross the line in the name of science, trampling ethical boundaries and often committing crimes in the process. The Icepick Surgeon masterfully guides the reader across two thousand years of history, beginning with Cleopatra’s dark deeds in ancient Egypt. The book reveals the origins of much of modern science in the transatlantic slave trade of the 1700s, as well as Thomas Edison’s mercenary support of the electric chair and the warped logic of the spies who infiltrated the Manhattan Project. But the sins of science aren’t all safely buried in the past. Many of them, Kean reminds us, still affect us today. We can draw direct lines from the medical abuses of Tuskegee and Nazi Germany to current vaccine hesitancy, and connect icepick lobotomies from the 1950s to the contemporary failings of mental-health care. Kean even takes us into the future, when advanced computers and genetic engineering could unleash whole new ways to do one another wrong. Unflinching, and exhilarating to the last page, The Icepick Surgeon fuses the drama of scientific discovery with the illicit thrill of a true-crime tale. With his trademark wit and precision, Kean shows that, while science has done more good than harm in the world, rogue scientists do exist, and when we sacrifice morals for progress, we often end up with neither.

History's Angel

History's Angel
Author: Anjum Hasan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2023-07-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1639730419

From the Man Asian Literary Prize-longlisted author, the story of a middle-aged man in contemporary India discovering that neither his life nor his country are as stable as he thought. Alif is a middle-aged, mild-mannered history teacher, living in contemporary Delhi, at a time when Muslims in India are seen either as hapless victims or live threats. Though his life's passion is the history he teaches, it's the present that presses down on him: his wife is set on a bigger house and a better car while trying to ace her MBA exams; his teenage son wants to quit school to get rich; his supercilious colleagues are suspicious of a Muslim teaching India's history; and his old friend Ganesh has just reconnected with a childhood sweetheart with whom Alif was always rather enamored himself. And then the unthinkable happens. While Alif is leading a school field trip, a student goads him and, in a fit of anger, Alif twists his ear. His job suddenly on the line, Alif finds his life rapidly descending into chaos. Meanwhile, his home city, too, darkens under the spreading shadow of violence. In this darkly funny, sharply observed and deeply moving novel, Anjum Hasan deftly and delicately explores the force and the consequences of remembering your people's history in an increasingly indifferent milieu.