The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Keen

by:  Sam Keen
published by:  Little, Brown and Co.
publish date:   July 12, 2010

The Periodic Table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, betrayal, and obsession. These fascinating tales follow every element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, and in the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. THE DISAPPEARING SPOON masterfully fuses science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, and discovery--from the Big Bang through the end of time.

I have been wanting to read this book ever since it came out.  I can't believe it took me like 5 years to finally get around to it.  That's crazy.  Bottom line, I found this to be a very interesting book.  

The Disappearing Spoon tells the entire history of the Periodic Table.  I didn't realize that it took so long for the Periodic Table to be built into the modern configuration.  The book also breaks down the table into groups of elements and tells some of the history of each element and interesting anecdotal tidbits about the various elements.   There are a lot of stories about the scientists that had a hand in putting together the Periodic Table and discovering different elements.  There were fascinating stories in this book.  

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in science.  It doesn't matter if you're interested in chemistry or not.  All your favorite scientific figures make an appearance in this book.