The Disappearing Spoon Chp. 9

The Disappearing Spoon Chapter 9

Summary:

In the following chapter, it continues off by talking more about the scientist Pauling and how he would then come to know much more about biology and just how much more fragile it is when compared to chemistry. It then gives a brief history lesson on elements that tend to live in the shadows, otherwise known as "Poisoner's Corridor". This part of the chapter uses the element Cadmium as an example of the "Poisoner's Corridor" and just how precious, yet dangerous it truly was then and now. As it turns out, Cadmium caused major suffering and panic long ago in Japan during the early twentieth century, largely due to the poisoning it caused when dumped. The Cadmium disease caused an epidemic. It continues to go into further detail to describe several other types of elements similar to Cadmium and how they devastated the lifes of hundreds of people afterwards. Even though Cadmium caused the lifes of many to become ruined, Cadmium was and most probably is the least devastating element among the other "Poisoner's Corridor" elements.

After so, it goes into complete detail to describe just how horrifyingly frightening the several other elements are and just how little it'll take to end one's life with possibly just a single drop. After going into such terrifying detail, the chapter then goes into describing how a man named Graham Frederick Young used this information to victimize the lives of more than 70 people and end a few. It is later shown that Young wasn't the only person that took advantage of this newly found info to end the lives of many for personal use. Bismuth is then introducing and how it had opposite effects than that of Cadmium and is even able to completely neutralize them. More atomic information is given about these painfully harmful elements and then again reintroduces Young and another man named David Hahn. Unlike the sociopath Young, David Hahn was deeply interested in these dangerous elements and the reactions they could output. David was so deeply entranced by these elements that he even went as far as to build his very own radioactive shed in his mother's backyard and experiment with these elements in explosive ways. Sadly, or fortunately, David was never able to pursue his dream in experimenting with radioactive materials. One can only imagine what would have occurred if he ever did achieve his dream; he might have just disappeared off the face of the world without much of a result either way, or possibly make it so that everybody in the world never forgets his name.

Reflection:

Compared to all of the other chapters that I have read so far from this book, I find this chapter to be one of the most interesting so far since it speaks of elements most people know little about and just how dangerous they can be if not aware of. I was thrilled to read the background information about these incredibly dangerous elements and just how dangerous they can truly be without any information on them. While it may not be considered very PG information to know just how people used these dangerous elements, whether it be for their personal use or experimental use, it is exciting to know information like this and helps us understand that actions like these do indeed occur every now and then in history. I did not find anything at all in this chapter to have been dislikable in the least and wish to know more about such information. In the end, I am glad to have been able to read about this information and hope to read more like this in future chapters.

Guiding Questions:

1. How is cadmium harmful? How is it helpful?

While Cadmium can be used as a replacement for other types of metals when needed, they are dangerously harmful to people when thrown away improperly and can result in killing hundreds of people without them realising what the actual problem is.

 2. When we think of elements or compounds being dangerous, we often think of explosive elements. How is thallium’s mode of attack different from this?

 Thallium can easily kill a living being by not by exploding, but by destroying important nutrients all over the body and eventually killing them.

3. How is the danger from thallium similar to the dangers of radioactivity?

 Radiation too breaks down cells in living beings, yet also replaces them with harmful mutations from radiation.

4. What makes bismuth such a unique element? 

It can neutralize the effects of Cadmium and such for other elements.

5. Where can you find thorium? Americium?

Thorium can be found in the Earth's crust to generate power for several years, and Americium can be created and found in smoke detectors.