The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements, is a 2010 book by science reporter Sam Kean.

The book focuses on the history of the periodic table by way of short stories showing how a number of chemical elements affected their discoverers, for either good or bad.

People discussed in the book include the physicist and chemist Marie Curie, whose discovery of radium almost ruined her career; the writer Mark Twain, whose short story "Sold to Satan" featured a devil who was made of radium and wore a suit made of polonium; and the theoretical physicist Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who earned a Nobel Prize in Physics for her groundbreaking work, yet continually faced opposition owing to her sex.

In general, he states that they are cousins because silicon mimics carbon in the sense that it also seeks to attach to four more atoms to fill its energy levels.

Researchers such as Johan Gadolin isolated clusters of lanthanides along with many scientists who made the trip to Ytterby to find the missing elements.

He describes how the Spartans threw bundles of wood, pitch, and stinky sulfur into Athens to force the Athenians out but failed.

Even though all of the scientifically advanced countries except the US signed the Hague Convention in 1899 to ban chemical weapons in war, the deal was broken.

Towards the end of this chapter Kean explains the things countries did to obtain the elements for weaponry and killing.

Following the timeline, Kean also discussed how the neutron was also discovered and how people became interested in radioactivity and began doing research.

Upcoming radioactivity research led to the Manhattan Project to develop along with the hopes of building an atomic bomb.

The Manhattan Project combined with the Monte Carlo method was successful and atomic bombs were able to be created.

The disagreements ran into the 1990s, but the fights and feuds were so extreme that IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) had to give the final names.

Doing so could have avoided the two biggest mistakes in science history made by Linus Pauling and Emilio Segre.

Then he talks about the basic mistakes Linus Pauling made when trying to discover the true form of the DNA strand.

Instead, James Watson, Francis Crick, and Rosalind Franklin's research led to the discovery of the true shape and form of the DNA strand.

This, consequently, led to the development of a disease called "itai-itai" or ouch-ouch, where people suffered tremendous pain, liver failure, and extremely damaged weakened bones.

Kean discusses Graham Young, who experimented by putting this element in people's food and drinks.

The author then discusses Tycho Brahe, who lost the bridge of his nose in a drunken sword duel in 1564.

Next he discusses Gadolinium and how it has unpaired electrons making it one of the most magnetic elements and is used in modern-day science by helping MRIs detect tumors.

Towards the end of this chapter Kean examines Gerhard Domagk and his contributions to the finding of the first antibacterial drug and bacterial birth control.

On March 19, 1981, five technicians were working on a simulation spacecraft at NASA's Cape Canaveral headquarters for a routine system check.

The author then moves on to talk about titanium and its many uses in implants to avoid infection and its deceitful methods to effect bones' growth onto it.

Kean then discusses the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe a writer of science and politics.

Xenon and krypton were put to temperatures as low as −240 F. Sam explains how laser beams are produced by yttrium and neodymium.

Kean also writes of Ernest Rutherford and the radioactivity research that led him to find a new element and beta particles.

Kean examines perfectionism at the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and the BIPM (Bureau International des Poids et Measures).

Throughout this chapter, Kean discusses the prototype of the kilogram and a metal rod in Paris that was previously used to exactly define the meter.

Finally, Sam Kean talks about francium, "magic elements" and the future of the periodic table.

[3][4] Science News and Smithsonian both praised the work for its wide appeal and writing,[1] and Science News commented that Kean's choice to deal with topics by periods in history helped "reveal how truly elemental the elements are and explain why this chemistry book appeals to non-chemists.

"[5] The New York Times was slightly more critical in their review, as they felt that the text was entertaining but leapt around too frequently in its topics.