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Title: Uncle Tungsten : Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 0-375-70404-3 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.49 (41 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: living the fun parts of chemistry
Comment: It's not all fun, but Sacks' education, encouraged by his relatives--including the uncle whose nickname provided the title---replicated the history of chemistry.
The uncle made light bulbs. Today he'd just own the company, but as it happened, he loved everything about working with tungsten, about making light bulbs. And he passed the love of metals, and the rest of the elements to his nephew.
I was briefly a chemistry major, just because the story of the exploration of the natural world was so compelling. And it was absolutely delightful to experience that story again, through the eyes of young Oliver.
Would you still love the book if you hated everything about science? You might. You might see what other people thought the fuss was about, if not share in it vicariously.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful science memoir!
Comment: Imagine yourself as a gifted youth born to an educated and supportive Jewish family living in WW II England where you are introduced to the fascination of discovery very early in life, exposed to the fearful suppression of twisted adults and the terror of war, and attempting to develop a personal worldview from family philosophies that ranged from confirmed Zionism through orthodox philosophies to more moderate conservative views. If you will stretch your imagination this far, then you will have a sense of one facet of neurologist Sacks's autobiographical Uncle Tungsten. Named after his Uncle Dave who manufactured tungsten light filaments and introduced the author to the fascinating world of metals, the book goes further than the usual autobiography. Containing many very informative footnotes, it smoothly digresses into beautifully written histories of chemistry and physics with marvelous examples taken from Sacks's sometimes-dangerous personal explorations as a child and young man. Written by one of the best writers of nonfiction alive today, the book gives a view of the science of chemistry that is denied most young people today in the interests of safety, if nothing else. Highly recommended; should be required reading for every aspiring young scientist. All levels.
Rating: 5
Summary: A passion for discovery
Comment: Oliver Sacks was gifted by his parents with the greatest boon any child could receive. From the start, he writes, he was "encouraged to interrogate, to investigate". With this mandate, he spent his childhood interrogating the history of science and scientists. He investigated the nature of chemicals, learned magnetism and electricity, and, in preparation for his anticipated medical career, probed into the mysteries of the body. This exquisite and frank account traces Sacks' boyhood in London - with side pauses to the schools attended - exposing his fears and ambitions with equal fervour.
Sacks' quest for knowledge mainly focussed on chemical elements and compounds, with metals dominating his attention. "Uncle Tungsten" [his uncle Dave] owned a lamp factory and provided both advice and materials. Sacks drew heavily on his expertise, but Dave often left him to experiment on his own. With a highly inquisitive mind and a drive to learn, Oliver often duplicated the research performed by notable figures of science to achieve the same ends. This technique provided great insight into the scientific method, allowing him to manufacture chemicals that might have been purchased at a nearby shop.
He learns the scientists' techniques through the blizzard of printed paper he plowed through during those years. Biographies, autobiographies, published journals and notebooks, all were his reading fare throughout his boyhood. He reminds us of the hazards of research from the burned hands and faces from potassium to the still-radioactive notebooks of Marie Curie, today stored in lead boxes. Setting up a laboratory in a back room of the family home, he followed their reasoning, their sense of discovery, and their techniques as he made bangs, smells, brilliant lights and beautiful crystals. His biological endeavours were often less successful. He and his chums once drove the inhabitants of a house away for months until the noxious odour of rotting cuttlefish could be exorcised.
Although Sacks introduces a wealth of scientific information from a broad sweep of sources, there is not a dull page in this book. He describes the techniques to isolate elements in vivid detail, and you find yourself sharing the researcher's frustration to achieve the goal along with the exhilaration when success is achieved. You follow Sacks willingly as he plods through the museums and into shops buying chemicals. Mostly, you watch him as he begs Uncle Dave for materials or sits spellbound as "Uncle Tungsten" describes the properties of metals. Sacks' joys at "re-learning" what others have done is infectious - he leaves you longing to repeat the experiments for yourself - only to learn, of course, that today's caution has sequestered the materials away to prevent you blundering into harm. That's a sad testimony, but Sacks' journey through time and place remains for us to gain some sense of what it must be like to undertake scientific adventures. Every schoolchild should be in possession of this book as parents encourage them to "investigate and interrogate". [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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Title: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat : And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 0684853949 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 02 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: An Anthropologist On Mars : Seven Paradoxical Tales by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 0679756973 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 February, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 0375700730 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 January, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Migraine by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 037570406X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Awakenings by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 0375704051 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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