The Disappearing Spoon Summary

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean was a celebration of the Periodic Table and all its chemical elements. It’s a refreshing story of the oddity and obsession, associated with one of chemistry’s greatest creations. The tales of each element flawlessly lead to another, as Kean animates the history of the Periodic Table. Chapter 4 of The Disappearing Spoon describes the origin of all elements, which was theorized to have occurred during the big bang. People discovered that if this theory was accurate, than the elements would be seen in equal amounts throughout the universe. In reality, the abundance of an element relies on the stars located near by and the history of the area. In 1939, scientists proved that a process called nuclear fusion heated the sun and other stars. It was also discovered that the elements of a star could determine its age. Younger stars usually contained only Hydrogen and Helium, while

Supernovas are accountable for the birth of new galaxies and stars, including the Milky Way and its planets. Jupiter is the center of many theories. One speculation considers Jupiter’s core to be solid diamond, or highly compressed carbon. Due to the abnormal mass of the planet, Jupiter has strange weather conditions that lead to large storms, including its Great Red Spot, an anti-cyclonic storm. In 1977, scientists made a major discovery in the origin of the earth. They found traces of iridium in red dust, suggesting that the element had come from a meteorite dating to the time when a mass extinction occurred. The theory was heightened when the layer of dust was shown to be circling the world, proving that a meteorite had in fact caused the mass extinction. Due to the belief that a mass extinction takes place every 26 million years, scientists hypothesized that the sun had a neighboring star, which pulled asteroids into the earth when its rotation came nearer to our