Uncle Tungsten

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

You can purchase Uncle Tungsten from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Chemistry is fun-damental

[Vietomatic]

I majored in Chemistry and Biochemistry and I feel that Chemistry is the foundation of practical science. Everything that we interact with is matter, and this matter follows fundamental rules of chemistry. This includes computers and the transmission of digital information.

Without a sound knowledge of chemistry, we would still be living in the middle ages and still be trying to convert lead into gold.

Re:Chemistry is fun-damental

[Shant3030]

>I majored in Chemistry and Biochemistry and I feel that Chemistry is the foundation of practical science. Everything that we interact with is matter, and this matter follows fundamental rules of chemistry. This includes computers and the transmission of digital information.

I disagree. I feel that physics is the foundation of practical science. Without a knowledge of how and why things work, we would have never been able to advance modern civilization.

Re:Chemistry is fun-damental

[reverseengineer]

Hmmm. Even as a biochem major, I don't think I'd agree that chemistry is the fundamental science- I have no problem with the physicists claiming that one, actually. Well, really, I'd like to see the mathematicians fight it out with the physicists over this issue. Anyway, I've always liked the term "the central science" for chemistry. Sitting in between physics and biology gives chemistry a broad spectrum of topics to work with. Last semester I took physical chemistry and biochem classes concurrently, and it was fascinating to study similar chemical reactions from two wildly different perspectives- using molecular orbital theory to explain how and why a reaction takes place, for example, and then seeing a similar reaction pop up in biochem, and studying its role in a metabolic pathway.

Frankly, the lines between the sciences get blurry in many places. The example that the parent poster gave with computers is a perfect case in point. The semiconductors used in computers can be looked at from a chemical perspective- dopant agents and valence shells and whatnot- or from a physical basis- free electrons and holes and energy gaps and such. Chemistry traditionally describes the actions of electrons in materials, since such behavior is the basis for chemical bonding- but the movements of electrons can also be considered in terms of electromagnetic and even quantum mechanical effects, which are traditionally in the domain of der physik. I know people in research groups who call themselves chemists, and others who consider themselves to be physicists, but they study the same things, and use many of the same tools- and then there are people who also research in the same areas, but call it materials science. There are gray areas on the other end of the spectrum, too. I consider myself to be a biochem major, but how does biochemistry differ from molecular biology (which is a separate major offered here)? There is also considerable overlap with organic chemistry- my o chem prof from last year, for instance, studies how various RNAs fold. You can look at something like evolution from a biochemical standpoint- genes, operons, mutations, etc, or from a biological standpoint- equilibria, populations, selection.

This has led to all sorts of interesting combinations of disciplines with chemistry- my roommate is part of a research group that uses computer models (with Linux!) to study protein folding. Is this computational physical biochemistry? Or chemical computational biophysics?

Re:Chemistry is fun-damental

[Jerf]

No, computer science is fundamental! Reality is just computation on the lowest level! That's why quantum computers are so cool, we can harness this computation in the most direct manner possible! Didn't you read "A New Kind of Science"?*

"Every significant scientific discipline will find a way to cast itself as the most fundamental discipline in the universe." Somebody-or-other's rule, not mine. Even the English/Sociology folks got into the game with Post-Modernism.

*: Actually I haven't.

Re:Remember The Anti-Drug Ads: +4, Patriotic

[EyeSavedLatin]

Actually, this is a valid point. Oliver Sacks is a acquantence of my father, and he's frequently said that he would go to the chemical store and buy things that were very dangerous and today are restricted. He views himself as having been lucky to be able to experiment the way he did. He is also a wonderful speaker, practically the definition of the absent-minded-professor and all around a nice guy. He also wrote Awakenings, which was made into this movie.

blah

[DSL-Admin]

Kids will go to the library to rent this, and then be confronted by men in dark suits with earpiece communicators, then dragged off in unmarked cars... Their crime will be "attempted possesion of intelligent material." They will be considered a threat to the US because they tried to learn how to use chemicals correctly...

It's incredibly good

[Artifex]

Sounds like I would really like this...

From what I have managed to read of the book, it's incredibly witty but also gives a lot of nifty scientific trivia (I have spouted his facts about element name histories, etc., at my dad, who, even with a metallurgical background, was suitably impressed), as well as being a great story about what an unusual life Oliver Sacks has been blessed with. He made me wish I had been there, or even had some of his experiences myself, and there are very few autobiographies I have read that have left me feeling the first, much less the second. In fact, I had intended this book to be my first review for Slashdot, but I misplaced it in one of my moving boxes back in November. (cry!)

Thanks for reminding me that I haven't finished unpacking.

Intellectual curiosity == TERRORISM!

[Anonymous Coward]

You are not supposed to wonder how the phone system works. You are not allowed to understand chemisty. You are not allowed to study cryptography.

We raised you to be compliant CONSUMERS . Anything else is unpatriotic!

Emasculated chemistry sets

[HisMother]

When Sachs was a boy, kids could get their hands on basically anything. When I was a lad, things were a bit more restrictive, but not much (this is thirty years ago or so.) But now, chemistry sets can't contain much of anything -- it's really sad. I'd like to buy one for my daughter when she's a bit older, but really, what's the point? We've gotten so overprotective as a society that we've lost something in the bargain.

Re:Emasculated chemistry sets

[The G]

Amen to that! I was able to raid some university store-rooms for chemicals and so had lots of chemisty-set fun growing up even in the 80s, but it just keeps getting harder and harder. It's nigh impossible for kids to get dangerous chemicals today, and our society is poorer for it.

Some day, when I have kids, I shall have to find ways to import black-market dangerous old chemistry sets from Elbonia or something.
--G

Chemistry in Soviet Russia (no kidding!)

[iamacat]

Well, I grew up in the said place, next to a science research center (anyone from Academgorodok?). My school lab was actually kind of well stocked, complete with a nice jar of uranium oxide "for making green glass". Most of my classmates on the other hand would be expelled from a school in Harlem in a day. One of the few redeeming effects of that is that the chemistry teacher was so moved that she let me have a free run of the place. Also, my father was able to leech some stuff from his friends.

When one has access to such resources, the first thing to do is to answer some questions to bother young minds:

• Q: What happens if you drop a piece of potassium into concentrated nitric acid? A: For a few seconds, nothing. Then you get a potassium bullet that shoots out of test tube and embeds itself in the ceiling.
• Q: How to make tear gas from household stuff. A: You need acetone (the original nail polish remover). Pump a chlorine gas though. You can make chlorine by passing DC current though a salt solutio. Hmmm... wonder if bleech would work? Or mixture of bleech with vinigar.
• Q: How to make a contact explosive? A: Pour amonium solution on iodine crystals until they turn into black powder. While it's wet, drop SMALL crumbs on the school floor. Once dry, it will go off when someone steps on it, giving a satisfying firecracker sound and a wonderful whiff of purple iodine wapor. The fun could go on for hours.

With the essential needs taken care of, I actually started doing research. Not that I was likely to discover anything, but I did stuff based on hunch, kept a journal and had a lot of fun. By heating P with some organic stuff, I got a test tube that not just glowed, but blinked in regular intervals. I also went to student competitions and got a second place in the country once.

Is it dangerous to give the good stuff to children/teenagers? Well, we did have one case where someone mishandled acetone peroxide (a much stronger contact explosive than NI3). Basically, they had to scrub the walls of his dorm room to get his cranial matter into the casket. But the truth be told, you WILL do something dangerous when you are growing up. For this one story, I know countless others who died from drugs or got killed in a gang clash. Might as well redirect that risk that one would take anyway to some ultimately good purpose.

So what happened eventually. Well, I came to US to dodge draft. If you are reading this and have a poor country with too many potential scientists/engineers that you just can't get rid of, because they are not that crazy about money... well, I think you know now how to solve this problem nicely. So anyway, chemistry classes here really, insanely suck. I mean, titration!!! Chemistry should have exposions, flashes of light, weird smells, holes in the cloth and multi-colored stains on hands. Not the lame drops of one transparent liquid into another one with nothing happening when they make contact.

So anyway, I saw that this field is pretty much closed to fun in US. And then that another one was, at that time, still wide open. I read a couple of stories. One was "The hacker's crackdown" and of course it's pretty lame, but it introduced a concept that I was never exposed to in Russia. That you can actually visit places around the world without leaving your home and learn something about what people there are doing. Another one was a story about the first internet worm. This made me feel like you can throw a pebble into the ocean and watch it grow into Tsunami. Like finger of the god. So anyway, I played with PC programming a little bit before, but this really made me learn UNIX, to see how people do such wonderous things.

Of course, the first target were school systems. The very first thing I learned is the effect of for(;;) fork(); on old UNIX systems. I actually planned to just run it for a few seconds and then ^C it, but apparently telnetd just didn't get enough CPU cycles to process my keystrokes. I got an angry e-mail and apologized.

The next thing I figured out is about setuid shell scripts and race conditions. I didn't think about link to -i, So I just made a link to the script to my home directory, ran it and then very quickly replaced it with my own script. Sometimes, the shell wouldn't open the file yet and ran my code instead.

After these lucky breaks, I gradually learned less lame stuff. Like booting Sun 3's with -i flag to run my own code instead of /sbin/init, even though -s boot would ask for password. Or replacing the crypt function in libc.so to execl /bin/sh when passed a certain string. The first time I tried this, I messed up the system because I tried to use cp instead of mv and it was itself dynamically linked. I was sorry for the admin who had to restore libc from the backup, but got a good understanding of shared libraries.

Since I behaved myself when I got root access, the university was surprisingly tolerant. Eventually professors started asking me to install programs for their classes, since the regular sysop was too lazy. Then I got a student job doing the same thing officially. As with chemistry, I got my fix of watching things blow up and moved to regular programming, which I am doing to this day.

I wonder though what options are available to students now. With DMCA, and terrorist bullshit that must restrict all the fun activities both in chemistry and programming... I would imagine the current generation would learn programming by writting VB for their palladium-enabled PC and constantly checking if their code infringes on anyone's IP rights or could be possibly misused to let others do the same thing. Thanks god I was born earlier and had a benign way to occupy my mind while growing up.