The Disappearing Spoon Chp. 12

The Disappearing Spoon Chapter 12

Summary:

The world around us has always been centered around the pursue of knowledge, whether it be why we are here, how to achieve are desires, and etc.; the periodic table is most definitely part of the list. In the very beginning of the chapter, it speaks of how elements on the periodic table burden us with the inability to pursue it with even our most technology and, thus, make our desires for this knowledge all the more desirable. Since the elements are greatly part of science, who would be there to disagree that it wouldn't be part of politics? The chapter then goes on into educating us on how Poland was like a playground for wars to be taken place and then starts giving us background on the woman Marie Sklodowska, a pole of Poland. Marie was deeply interested in sciences and politics; she would go to different countries and study to gain her Ph.D. She was later then involved with studying Uranium and helped give early insight of it in France. She one day stumbled upon uranium residue that was vastly more radioactive than Uranium and eventually ended up with two Nobel Prizes. The chapter then ends off her story with her not being accepted into a scientific school for being a woman, her husband dies, but gets another lover, and with her possibly making fun of Poland. 

The chapter then moves onto Marie's daughter and her husband; Marie goes on to continue her late mother's work and eventually something horrible happens. Joliot-Curie, Marie's daughter, experiences an explosion with Polonium and inhales the poison. Joliot-Curie later dies due to leukemia, just like her mother had twenty-two years prior. The chapter then describes how inhaling this element meant her downfall as a scientist and then moves onto a man named Hevesy. Hevesy too studied radioactivity attempted to separate Radium-D and lead apart with no progress and eventually turned to get revenge on his landlady for feeding him "fresh" meat. He eventually got revenge by framing the landlady by tampering with the food with traces of Radium and eventually blossomed in Chemistry. The story then introduces Bohr and Coster into Hevesy story and announce their progress in quantum mechanics; however, years later Hevesy had to run away due to WW2 occurring and was unable to obtain his Nobel Prize. Finally, the story introduces German scientists during the time of WW2 and end with many of them gaining a Nobel Prize and many of them never getting a Nobel Prize.

Reflection:

First of all, I believe that this chapter was only decent to my tastes and wish there could have been much more overall information. I enjoyed this chapter for the personal stories there were, but wish there could have been more eye-catching information. I certainly did learn a lot of information that I didn't understand or know before reading this, but it wasn't exactly a topic I was very interested into understanding. Overall, I believe there are others that would find this information completely important and or eye-catching, but, sadly, it wasn't exactly my taste.

Guiding questions:

1. Marie and Pierre Curie and their daughter all died tragically. How did each of them die?

Pierre Curie died by getting hit by a moving carriage and both Marie and her daughter died by leukemia. 

2. Marie Curie discovered what two elements? What element is named after her? How many of these elements are radioactive?

She discovered Polonium and Radium, an element was named Curium after her, and two of these are radioactive.

3. How did Hevesy cleverly "hide" two gold Nobel Prize medals from the Germans?

By melting them down into acid.

4. Summarize the collaboration of Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner. 

In 1938 Hahn, Meitner, and Strassmann became the first to recognize that the uranium atom, when bombarded by neutrons, actually split. Hahn received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944.