Science and Natural History discussion

Post your questions, comments and outrages here to share and discuss with other members. Happy reading!

This is a good choice. I am a geologist / paleontologist and have forgotten much of this. The author writes in an engaging manner and makes this an interesting book to read. I have been reading it for two days.

As a chemist, I also enjoyed this book. I finished it in Feb 2013 and was glad to see the group picked it as the April book.

I picked it up when I was at the bookstore but haven't had an opportunity to start reading it yet. I look forward to getting started.

I have made progress in reading a book outside my field. I learner where Uranus and Pluto got their name. The discussion of the demise of the dinosaurs peaked my interest. The author even mentions the large volcanic provinces emerging at the same time. Some sections were not so interesting --I reacted as if I had taken an ambien tablet. I will keep chipping away st this book.

Have finished it, and this is my review:
Got this out of the library a while back, mainly for my wife who teaches chemistry, as a general book for her to maybe recommend to her students.

Overall is is quite good. It is a science book that is written in a style that could be described as conversational. It has some humour in it, and lots of facts, anecdotes and tales of the the individuals who made the science of chemistry what it is today. One of the most fascinating is the discovery of a natural nuclear power station that has been running for 1.7 billion years.

I have only given four stars as I feel that the book , is much better at explaining the elements.Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements

Well worth a read, in my opinion

I am enjoying The Disappearing Spoon more. I just finished the part about molybdenum and the role it had in armaments. The author discusses the famous locality at Bartlet Mountain in Colorado. This is actually the Climax Mine. It had shut down decades ago. It was a disaster for Leadville's economy. The Climax Mine just reopened. They have a billboard along the highway announcing the need for all kinds of employees. There is another large deposit of moly ore that has been discovered in an operating gold mine (Cripple Creek) also in Colorado. The gold there is in combination with another interesting element: Te. My family came from England to work in the Cripple Creek mines in the 1890s. The mine permit has been extended to 2025. It may be extended to 2050. The just keep finding gold there. I live 14 miles from there. It looks like some elements have played a big role in my family history: Te/Au/ and Ag--all from Cripple Creek. I have some interesting posts on my blog if you want to learn more.

Tungsten, also mentioned in the book, was mined by the other side of my family at a mine near Nederland, Colorado (in Boulder County). My great-grandfather hauled the ore to a mill for processing. Also a relative in the 1850s worked on the boron waters of California. He wrote a paper on his investigations and was part to the “white gold” or borax mining. Veatchite was named to honor him. I have some details about this on my blog. I am glad we chose this book to read for April. I can see many connections of my family to the periodic table of elements and it helps me understand that I had to become a geoscientist—it was in my genes!

A boron based acid that has a pH of -31! Yikes!

The disappearing spoon is a great book. I am almost finished it and I can't wait for the May reading selection. I hope its The Ancestors Tale by Richard Dawkins! I am only in eighth grade, and i love to read. I am obsessed with science and evolutionary biology. Hope i become an evolutionary biologist like Dawkins. Hope someone reads this and will respond!
Thanks so much

Hi Jason! Your goals and reading is impressive. I work with teens who wish to become scientitsts. I have 4 Internet students who participate via the Internet. Google "Pikes Peak Pebble Pups" to see what we are doing. This way you can find our blog. We also have a facebook. We are focusing on the biology of dinosaurs and will soon work on the evolution of man. Most of the teens have been published in magazines. They take turns in writing a monthly newspaper article. The pathway to your dream is to read and read some more! You are welcome to join us as a distance student. There is no cost. Some of our students join the Colorado Scientific Society. That costs $5 per year.

Hi Steven! I would be honored to become a distant student! I would love to show you some writing I do already. I write a lot of passages and articles on science and evolution. I would love if my name got out and people read my short essays on evolution. My dream since I was in 5th grade was to be a scientist, like the four horsemen, Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, Harris.
I would greatly appreciate more info on everything because I am very very interested, I am glad that you read my conment. Thank you for your time! Hope you get back to me.

Hi Steven! Like Jason I'm in 8th grade and I've been good friends with him since 5th grade. We both found a common interest in science and the world around us. Since then I knew I wanted to become a scientist. Lately I've become even more inspired by the work of people like Richard Dawkins and Neil Shubin. We also co-authored an article on evolution for our school newspaper and it should be coming out soon for everyone to read. I'd really like to get more infromation on that program, it sounds great! This would be a great opportunity for us to work together and get our names out there. Thanks!

Hi Connor, I think the program that I run may be exactly what you want. I have several scientists that help me, and I am networked to scientists all over the world. I also work with one of the scientists at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. One of my students, who is in 10th grade, wrote a researched article on a petrified pine cone and won first place in the nation in a science writing contest, first place in the Rocky Mountain region, and his article was published in newsletters, the local newspaper, and an international magazine. He participates entirely through the Internet. He just finished a short article on the extinction of the dinosaurs. His friend did original artwork to go with the article. Instead of researched and academic writing, he wrote in a more journalistic style. My program teaches both types of writing. We also do science. Last month one of my students— who just turned 15—presented a paper at the Colorado School of Mines to a learned society. It was a symposium on the Ice Age. All of the presenters had a PhD behind their name but one, and it was my student (Zach). I also have the students do science poetry to unleash their creativity. A second grade student in my program won first place in a national poetry contest. He will receive a medal from the US poet laureate. Then two more students won first and second place in the state (Colorado). They will be honored at the Denver Public Library. All of the students will have their poems published in an anthology. Each student receives the book, their school, and their local public library. I require their poems to be about science or a science theme. I have a number of research projects that you can work on with Jason. In order to start I need your email, an email from your parent authorizing your participation in the group. I can email you our program outline. Look at our blog and go back several months and see what the students have accomplished and examples of their work: http://pebblepups.blogspot.com/ Also check out our facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PikesPeakPebb...
I can teach researched writing and how to do inline citations, how to design a research project, and so forth. Being able to have the tools to do research is key, and my program teaches this. My program focuses on the Earth sciences, which is broad. It includes evolution of organisms, evolution of man and the most current information, climate change, we look at and study wetlands, we study deserts, alpine ecology, do some work on archaeology (geoarchaeology), oceanography, the sun, the solar system, planetary geology, astronomy, paleontology (ancient life), volcanology, extinction events the cryosphere (frozen parts of planet), petrology (rocks), mineralogy, dating methods, environmental science, and many more topics. I am starting an archeological study on Roman artifacts. I have photomicrographs and standard photographs of the specimens. I need help with this project, and publication is guaranteed by a British journal that is distributed internationally. The amount of work that each student would do on this project is between 1 to 5 hours. This is because I am assigning different parts of the projects to different students. With so many student researchers, each student will not have to spend days or months on the project. Completing these projects and being part of our group will generate many things to put on your resume which will be very important in college applications and scholarship awardsI also have individual or small group projects. My program has been featured multiple times in our local newspaper. Rock and Gem did an article on one of my students. Two of my students placed in the southern Colorado Science Olympiad and the Rock and Gem magazine is doing a feature artcile to the two teens. Here is my email: steven.veatch@gmail.com
Best regards--Steve

Thank you so much Steven! Connor and I will definitely check this out, you are really helping us out!
thanks for your time!

Thanks so much Steven!

Steven wrote: "Tungsten, also mentioned in the book, was mined by the other side of my family at a mine near Nederland, Colorado (in Boulder County). My great-grandfather hauled the ore to a mill for processing. ..."

This is very cool! I work in Boulder and now feel like I should go digging for tungsten and moly!

just finished disappearing spoon! I thought it was a good and fun read, though it got a little confusing at points since I'm in 8th grade.

I just read about the radioactive Boy Scout, David Hahn, in our book “The Disappearing Spoon”. This is the first time I heard about the 17-year-old amateur chemist who tried to build a breeder nuclear reactor in a back yard shed in Michigan. It was declared a superfund site and was cleaned up by the EPA. I found out that Ken Silverstein wrote a book in 2004, “The Radioactive Boy Scout,” on Hahn and his chemistry experiment gone bad. I “Googled” David Hahn and saw an image of David—his face looks much worse than the description given in the book. It is too bad he could not channel his interests through school and other legitimate ways such as school science clubs, science fairs with adult coaches, participate in the Michigan Science Olympiad, and the many other ways to channel his passions. His life would have turned out much different and perhaps longer (he must be suffering from radiation poisoning); and he could have made valuable contributions to science.

I have just read the author's section of beryillium. My wife recently found a site for gem beryl. Nearby there were beryl (beryllium aluminium silicate)mines that have been since closed down and reclaimed by the US Forest service. Here is a URL with some of my notes on the site my wife found:
http://coloradoearthscience.blogspot....

The author briefly mentions Jean Baptiste Biot. in my world of geoscience I recall his name: biotite (dark or black) mica was named after him and he firmly established the nature and genesis of meteorites.

steven, I remember that name. my favorite part was about tthe boy scout and the nuclear reactor.

From just reading the first three chapters, I've recommended this book to our AP Chemistry teacher as a summer reading assignment for next year's students. He likes the idea and is considering it.

I like how the analogy is made of the periodic table to a building of legos and it's accessibility to high school readers.

Would recommend the Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements as well Diane

Paul wrote: "Would recommend the Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements as well Diane"

I'll forward that to him, thanks. Would you say it is an easier read than "Disappearing Spoon"?

About the same in terms of level of chemistry, just written in a different way

I just finished Kean’s book; it is an excellent work and it was hard for me to put down. I am so glad I joined this group because I will be reading books on science that are not in my field. I recently did a project on Ice Age pollen and needed 4 different sciences with different backgrounds. Research is very much interdisciplinary nowadays.
Near the end of the book there is “A Conversation with Sam Kean” and the very first question asked is “How did your love affair with science develop?” Basically it started in third grade for Kean. For me it was fourth grade. I asked this same question with a number of scientists I work with and the most common answer I received was fourth grade. That is why I have established a science study group for kids (K-12) that I have mentioned in several of my posts. I have the help I three retired scientists: a petroleum geologist, a retired classroom teacher with a degree in geology, and a retired professor of geology. I also receive help from a curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the exploration manager at the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine in Cripple Creek, Colorado. The gold mine sets up field experiences in studying environmental monitoring at the gold mine. Together, we work really hard to channel children into successful experiences. In my group two placed in the southern Colorado Science Olympiad, a second grader wrote a poem (nonete) on the geology of fire and won a medal from the U.S. poet laureate. I also just learned another of our second graders won first place in a poetry contest. He wrote a poem about a volcano. The Denver Public Library will honor him this month. Each child in our program writes an article on a science topic that is published in our local newspaper. In November of this year three of the teens will be presenting PowerPoint programs to our science society. One of our members who is 15 took the last two days off from school to visit with the department head of the geology department at the University of Montana. He was there yesterday. While many of our young members may not become scientists, we do see that their grades go up in almost all areas, they have increased their writing skills, their self-esteem has gone through the roof, and they are picking up awards, medals, and experiences that will help them in college and scholarship applications. We are expanding our local program to accept Internet students from the UK. A British science magazine is going to set up a hub or network in the UK where we will get 6 British students to work with. I wish this program was available when I was in fourth grade. I am definitely going to recommend this book to our teen members.

I live just a few miles from a major gold mining operation. They use advanced techniques to find the gold and increase their reserve. I had breakfast the other day with one of their geologists. He cited an interesting fact. If all the refined Au in the world were put in one spot it would form a cube 60 feet on each side.

One really good thing about long flights across the US is the opportunity to really sit down for five and six hours and just read. I was able to finish this book and one of the topics I found interesting is the use of copper and its ability to "sterilize" bacteria through its stripping of electrons.