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Were you the eccentric cousin with a chemistry set? Peter Kukla contributes the review below of Oliver Sack's Uncle Tungsten, which sounds like a fun read about growing up curious about chemicals. (Don't worry -- the book sneaks in lots of information about the periodic table and its contents, besides.) For certain families, the science-centric childhood Sacks describes may seem perfectly ordinary. For others, it may give a glimpse into what your kids could learn, given some curiosity and the right environment. Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood author Oliver Sacks pages 320 publisher Vintage Books rating 8 reviewer Peter Kukla ISBN 0375704043 summary Interesting history of the author's childhood, and of chemistry in general.

Oliver Sacks is a noted neurologist, and author of a number of books for popular audiences, including The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. I came across Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood while browsing through a bookstore a few months ago, and decided to give it a read.

Uncle Tungsten is billed as "Memories of a Chemical Boyhood" in the title, but it's actually far more than a simple biography of his childhood. The real focus of the book is trifold: the influence of chemistry upon his early life and his early chemistry experiments and researches into chemistry, the stories behind the discoveries of the elements comprising the periodic table and of the discovery of the periodic table itself, and the non-chemical aspects of his childhood.

We learn early on that Sacks' family was chock-full of chemists (the title of the book refers to an uncle whose factory produced light bulbs using tungsten filaments), physicists, and doctors (including both of his parents). As a result, he had access to volumes of information about chemistry and access to chemicals of every sort, not to mention a family that was quite happy to indulge his interests. He made good use of these resources, ultimately gaining his own chemistry lab at home (complete with fume cupboard) where he experimented with a little of everything in an attempt to find out as much as possible about the chemical world.

His stories about how various elements had been isolated are given color by his own experiences with these same elements as a child. When he reaches the radioactive elements, for example, he illustrates some of the properties of uranium by describing his experiments with a chunk of uranium ore given to him by one of his uncles! Other experiments include dropping sodium (which is highly reactive with water) into a pond in a nearby park to watch it burn, bleaching red roses by holding them over burning sulphur, and using a spectroscope to examine the absorption Sacks' childhood experiments, however, are only part of the picture. Tales of his childhood are frequently interrupted by stories about the pioneers of chemistry (such as the Curies, Mendeleev, and Humphry Davy) who identified and isolated the various elements. As he discusses the discoveries of the elements, he includes descriptions of those researchers who ferreted out these elements, the puzzles they encountered during their work, and the hazards they faced when working with dangerous substances.

The book does include "non-chemical memories," too. Although chemistry was his first love, Sacks got the opportunity (and, with physician parents, the encouragement) to dissect worms, octopi, and even human cadavers! He also shares his wartime memories of growing up as a child during the blitz and being sent away from home to live in a boarding school for his own safety, although he ultimately returned home before the war was over. Often, however, the non-chemical memories are offered as background for the rest of the story.

I enjoyed this book very much, even though the extent of my chemistry background consists of getting a "C-" in high-school chemistry. My father, a design engineer who worked for many years in a chemical engineering department at a university, also enjoyed it. Based on these two opinions, at least, I can conclude that the book probably would appeal to a fairly wide geek-audience.

More can be discovered about the author at www.oliversacks.com

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