I became intimately acquainted with the boyhood of Oliver Sacks by
reading his book " Uncle Tungsten-Memories of a Chemical Boyhood ". He
had a sensuous love for the elements, beautiful minerals, crystals of
geometric perfection. Do high school chemistry students today have an
olfactory appreciation of old fashioned experimental chemistry ?
" I used a zinc rod,sticking it first in a solution of copper sulfate, and got a gorgeous encrustration ,a copper plating all around it .... My taste was for the spectacular-the frothings,the incandescences, the stinks, and the bangs,which almost define a first entry into chemistry ".
You Tube now makes possible for any science student a sensuous experience of the world of THINGS. I watched hydrogen ignite myself after reading about a mysterious explosion on a Rhode Island beach. A series titled " The Periodic Table of Videos ".
One chapter in " Uncle Tungsten " is titled : " Humphrey Davy-A Poet Chemist ".
Oliver Sacks became a sensitive, compassionate Poet-Psychiatrist .Alas, a 19th century soul.
" I used a zinc rod,sticking it first in a solution of copper sulfate, and got a gorgeous encrustration ,a copper plating all around it .... My taste was for the spectacular-the frothings,the incandescences, the stinks, and the bangs,which almost define a first entry into chemistry ".
You Tube now makes possible for any science student a sensuous experience of the world of THINGS. I watched hydrogen ignite myself after reading about a mysterious explosion on a Rhode Island beach. A series titled " The Periodic Table of Videos ".
One chapter in " Uncle Tungsten " is titled : " Humphrey Davy-A Poet Chemist ".
Oliver Sacks became a sensitive, compassionate Poet-Psychiatrist .Alas, a 19th century soul.
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Ron