Disappearing Spoon, Ch. 15-17

In chapter 15, I read about William Crookes and his discovery of selenium, an element that, like most in the periodic table, is toxic in large doses. It can cause physical harm including but not limited to fevers and sores, and it can give one a kind of high if ingested. There were farmers and ranchers in Crookes' time whose cattle were prone to eating weeds rich in selenium compound. As one could guess, this harmed the cattle and the animals had to be monitored carefully. Go back to the mentioning of selenium giving highs; it was thought in those times that people could go mad if they took in a lot of selenium. People assumed that this was the cause of Crookes' "madness" that he displayed by abandoning his science to pursue a religious life path. His choice was made after the death of  his brother. While it's possible that his work with selenium could have poisoned William, I think that this was a good example of what grief over death can do to a person. I also read about William Röntgen, who discovered x-rays.

In chapter sixteen, Kean talked about a man named Robert Scott who took a few of his buddies with him to the South Pole. The explorers had quite a bit of tin with them when they were on their way, and as they got closer to Antarctica, the tin began to rust. Unlike iron rust, tin rust is white. However, like anything else that can rust, the tin grew fragile. One could imagine that things began falling apart on the journey, perhaps malfunctioning. A kerosene leak along the way claimed Scott's life, and his buddies had to turn back without him. Cold conditions do strange things to metals. An example I used to relate to this chapter is how cold temps drain battery life. It was highly likely that some disaster would intervene with Scott's goal.

Chapter 17 went into greater detail about the story behind a man whose name I've actually heard a few times in school. Supposedly, Donald Glaser invented a "bubble chamber" while sitting in a pub, and the actions that he performed with his invention apparently helped him see tiny, tiny things called "kaons", "muons", and "pions". I admit, I have no idea what those are. This assumption about Glaser is false, nothing more than a tall tale. However, his bubble chamber did make one thing clear. I read in this chapter that bubbles form around the imperfections of something like a glass. Regardless of carbonation, a glass of wine or champagne will be bubbly because there are microscopic cracks in the wine glass.