Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.59 (738 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0375704043 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 352 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-06-12 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Uncle Tungsten is a crystalline view of a brilliant young mind springing to life, a story of growing up which is by turns elegiac, comic, and wistful, full of the electrifying joy of discovery.. Wells, and the periodic table. We follow the young Oliver as he is exiled at the age of six to a grim, sadistic boarding school to escape the London Blitz, and later watch as he sets about passionately reliving the exploits of his chemical heroes–in his own home laboratory. In this endlessly charming and eloquent memoir, the author of The Man Wh
His sociable father loved house calls and "was drawn to medicine because its practice was central in human society," while his shy mother "had an intense feeling for structure for her medicine was part of natural history and biology." For young Oliver, unhappy at the brutal boarding school he was sent to during the war, and afraid that he would become mentally ill like his older brother, chemistry was a refuge in an uncertain world. Born in 1933 into a family of formidably intelligent London Jews, he discovered the wonders of the physical sciences early from his parents and their flock of brilliant siblings, most nota
Kelly Terry said Great Memoir!. Oliver Sacks is a master of creative nonfiction. This memoir is very interesting. Dr. Sacks discusses chemistry in an engaging fashion and elaborates on his lifelong fascination with elements, particularly metals. The stories of his boyhood in wartime and post-wartime London are interesting as well. Dr. Sacks has a way of describing all kinds of incidents in a very objective manner. If you like his other work, you will enjoy this book as well. Uncle Tungsten complements On the Move, the memoirs of Dr. Sacks' adult life. As a reader, I felt very much a part of Dr. Sacks' large extended intellectually oriented family.. "Sacks ReExplains The Universe" according to Jon Linden. From sodium to radium to quantum mechanics, this basically autobiographical book tells the story of not only Oliver Sacks life between the ages of basically Sacks ReExplains The Universe Jon Linden From sodium to radium to quantum mechanics, this basically autobiographical book tells the story of not only Oliver Sacks life between the ages of basically 4 and 15, but also tells the story of his discovery of the world of Chemistry and Physics and of what the world is composed.Sacks starts by describing his life as almost a nightmare of incompassion. Living in wartorn London during the Second World War, his school life was filled with horror and pain. But the young Sacks retreated mentally into a world of mathematics, chemistry and physics. From Fibonacci mathematical series to the history of the building of the per. and 15, but also tells the story of his discovery of the world of Chemistry and Physics and of what the world is composed.Sacks starts by describing his life as almost a nightmare of incompassion. Living in wartorn London during the Second World War, his school life was filled with horror and pain. But the young Sacks retreated mentally into a world of mathematics, chemistry and physics. From Fibonacci mathematical series to the history of the building of the per. "A Grand Tour of the Periodic Table with Dr. Sacks" according to ealovitt. "It often happens that the mind of a person who is learning a new science, has to pass through all the phases which the science itself has exhibited in its historical evolution." (Stanislao Cannizzaro, Italian chemist, 1826 - 1910).These words had a powerful resonance for Oliver Sacks. When the gifted neurologist wrote his autobiography, he also wrote a history of chemistry as recapitulated through his own childhood experiences. He grew up in a very scientific family--his mother and father were physicians, and his uncle Dave (the 'Uncle Tungsten' of the title) was both a chemist and a business entrepreneur, who "would