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Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
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“price clipped front fly leaf.Your order will be shrink wrapped, bubble wrapped, and wrapped in ”... Read moreabout condition
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Located in: Fairhope, Alabama, United States
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Estimated between Thu, 27 Jun and Sat, 29 Jun to 43230
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eBay item number:304895251999
Item specifics
- Condition
- Like New
- Seller Notes
- ISBN
- 9780375404481
- Book Title
- Uncle Tungsten : Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
- Publisher
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Item Length
- 8.6 in
- Publication Year
- 2001
- Format
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- Illustrator
- Yes
- Item Height
- 1.2 in
- Genre
- Biography & Autobiography, Science
- Topic
- General, Medical
- Item Weight
- 19.9 Oz
- Item Width
- 5.7 in
- Number of Pages
- 352 Pages
About this product
Product Information
From his earliest days, Oliver Sacks, the distinguished neurologist who is also one of the most remarkable storytellers of our time, was irresistibly drawn to understanding the natural world. Born into a large family of doctors, metallurgists, chemists, physicists, and teachers, his curiosity was encouraged and abetted by aunts, uncles, parents, and older brothers. But soon after his sixth birthday, the Second World War broke out and he was evacuated from London, as were hundreds of thousands of children, to escape the bombing. Exiled to a school that rivaled Dickens's grimmest, fed on a steady diet of turnips and beetroots, tormented by a sadistic headmaster, and allowed home only once in four years, he felt desolate and abandoned. When he returned to London in 1943 at the age of ten, he was a changed, withdrawn boy, one who desperately needed order to make sense of his life. He was sustained by his secret passions: for numbers, for metals, and for finding patterns in the world around him. Under the tutelage of his "chemical" uncle, Uncle Tungsten, Sacks began to experiment with "the stinks and bangs" that almost define a first entry into chemistry: tossing sodium off a bridge to see it take fire in the water below; producing billowing clouds of noxious-smelling chemicals in his home lab. As his interests spread to investigations of batteries and bulbs, vacuum tubes and photography, he discovered his first great scientific heroes, men and women whose genius lay in understanding the hidden order of things and disclosing the forces that sustain and support the tangible world. There was Humphry Davy, the boyish chemist who delighted in sending flaming globules of metal shooting across his lab; Marie Curie, whose heroic efforts in isolating radium would ultimately lead to the unlocking of the secrets of the atom; and Dmitri Mendeleev, inventor of the periodic table, whose pursuit of the classification of elements unfolds like a detective story. Uncle Tungsten vividly evokes a time when virtual reality had not yet displaced a hands-on knowledge of the world. It draws us into a journey of discovery that reveals, through the enchantment and wonder of a childhood passion, the birth of an extraordinary and original mind.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-10
0375404481
ISBN-13
9780375404481
eBay Product ID (ePID)
1018064
Product Key Features
Book Title
Uncle Tungsten : Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
Number of Pages
352 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2001
Topic
General, Medical
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Biography & Autobiography, Science
Format
Hardcover
Dimensions
Item Height
1.2 in
Item Weight
19.9 Oz
Item Length
8.6 in
Item Width
5.7 in
Additional Product Features
Dewey Edition
21
Reviews
"Dr.Sacks mourns, with a Wordsworthian sense of loss, the passing of those 'lyrical, mystical perceptions of childhood', those 'sudden landscapes of glory and illumination'. And yet the mixture of rekindled passion, humility and humour with which the older man pays homage to the boy, shows just how little he has faded into the light of common day." -The Economist "Good prose is often described as glowing: luminous, numinous, glimmering, shimmering, incandescent, radiant. Sacks's writing is all that, and sometimes, no matter how closely you read it, you can't quite figure out what makes it so precisely, unsparingly light...By the time he was 15...Sacks's attention began drifting away from chemistry...He can't quite say why he abandoned his first love and Mendeleev's Garden. His 'intellectual limitations? Adolescence? School'...The inevitable course, the natural history, of enthusiasm, that burns hotly, brightly...and then, exhausting itself, gutters out?' No matter. With Uncle Tungsten, Sacks has reignited the fire, so the rest of us can read by its glow." -The New York Times Book Review "Artful, impassioned memoir of a youth spent lost in the blinding light of chemistry from neurologist/essayist Sacks. . . . . In a kind and gracious voice, Sacks guides readers on his journey of passionate discovery into the romance of chemistry. . . . The realm of science is alchemy in Sacks's hands as he spins pure gold from base metals." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "In Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks weaves together the wonders of chemistry and his boyhood experiences with grace, ease, and just the right comedic touch. The result is a rich, unique, and compelling glimpse into the development of an enormously fertile and creative mind." -Brian Greene "A gift from a wonderful man and a masterful scholar and writer. This sharing of life can only merit the chemist's symbol for Tungsten: W --a winner!" -Stephen Jay Gould "Oliver Sacks is an extraordinary soul-scientist and artist, healer and explorer-and he has given us an extraordinary memoir. Uncle Tungsten is profoundly illuminating and continually surprising." -James Gleick, "Dr.Sacks mourns, with a Wordsworthian sense of loss, the passing of those 'lyrical, mystical perceptions of childhood', those 'sudden landscapes of glory and illumination'. And yet the mixture of rekindled passion, humility and humour with which the older man pays homage to the boy, shows just how little he has faded into the light of common day." -The Economist "Good prose is often described as glowing: luminous, numinous, glimmering, shimmering, incandescent, radiant. Sacks's writing is all that, and sometimes, no matter how closely you read it, you can't quite figure out what makes it so precisely, unsparingly light...By the time he was 15...Sacks's attention began drifting away from chemistry...He can't quite say why he abandoned his first love and Mendeleev's Garden. His 'intellectual limitations? Adolescence? School'...The inevitable course, the natural history, of enthusiasm, that burns hotly, brightly...and then, exhausting itself, gutters out?' No matter. With Uncle Tungsten, Sacks has reignited the fire, so the rest of us can read by its glow." -The New York Times Book Review "Artful, impassioned memoir of a youth spent lost in the blinding light of chemistry from neurologist/essayist Sacks. . . . . In a kind and gracious voice, Sacks guides readers on his journey of passionate discovery into the romance of chemistry. . . . The realm of science is alchemy in Sacks's hands as he spins pure gold from base metals." -Kirkus Reviews(starred review) "InUncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks weaves together the wonders of chemistry and his boyhood experiences with grace, ease, and just the right comedic touch. The result is a rich, unique, and compelling glimpse into the development of an enormously fertile and creative mind." -Brian Greene "A gift from a wonderful man and a masterful scholar and writer. This sharing of life can only merit the chemist's symbol for Tungsten: W --a winner!" -Stephen Jay Gould "Oliver Sacks is an extraordinary soul-scientist and artist, healer and explorer-and he has given us an extraordinary memoir.Uncle Tungstenis profoundly illuminating and continually surprising." -James Gleick
Lccn
2001-033738
Target Audience
Trade
Dewey Decimal
616.8/092 B
Lc Classification Number
Rc339.52.S23a3 2001
Copyright Date
2001
Item description from the seller
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:304895251999
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Item location:
Fairhope, Alabama, United States
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| Postage and handling | To | Service | Delivery*See Delivery notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| US $4.99 (approx RM 23.52) | United States | Economy Postage (USPS Media MailTM) | Estimated between Thu, 27 Jun and Sat, 29 Jun to 43230 |
| US $9.98 (approx RM 47.04) | United States | Expedited Postage (USPS Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope®) | Estimated between Tue, 25 Jun and Fri, 28 Jun to 43230 |
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| After receiving the item, contact seller within | Refund will be given as |
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Seller feedback (2,533)
c***c (114)- Feedback left by buyer.
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Arrived in great shape, early!
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Way better than expected. Still in the shrink wrap! Perfect!! A+++++
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Wonderful transaction!