Oliver Sacks has written a number of popular books, including "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," and "Awakenings," which was made into both a documentary and a movie starring Robin Williams. The movie "At First Sight" was also based on material from one of his books. Most of Sacks' writings deal with neurological cases he has seen or is familiar with. He is an excellent writer and has effectively promoted understanding of neurological medicine among the reading public.
"Uncle Tungsten" explores a different subject - Sacks' intense childhood interest in chemistry. The book starts off in an autobiographical mode - examining his very early life in pre-WWII London. Both of his parents were physicians and numerous aunts and uncles were medical or scientific professionals. Other relatives were political activists, supporting Jewish causes of the time, including the Zionist movement and support for Jews living in Palestine. But a dramatic change in his life was about to occur.
In 1939, WWII began in earnest for England, and six-year-old Oliver was sent to an evacuation camp in the countryside. This was a very traumatic experience for him. Upon his return to London in 1943, desperately seeking order, he developed a powerful interest in chemistry. His "Uncle Tungsten," Dave Landau, was a chemist strongly involved in the incandescent lighting industry, where tungsten played (and still plays) a central role. Along with several other scientist-relatives, "Uncle Tungsten" supports young Oliver Sacks' interest in the chemical sciences. From this point, the book discusses mostly (but not exclusively) the fascination that chemistry, both the science itself, and its history, held for the boy.
To me, the history of chemistry was the most interesting material in the book. The text is full of asides that are quite interesting. A few of the things that especially stand out: Sacks points out that the modern gulf between the arts and the sciences did not exist in the early days of chemistry. Humphrey Davy was a close friend of Coleridge, for instance, and the Romantic poets were generally very interested in the discoveries of science and those who were making them. A different story highlighted Sacks' neurologist background when he discussed Henry Cavendish, the great chemist and one of the richest men in England. As he described Cavendish's insistence on near total isolation from human contact, I felt that he was describing an autistic person. He later speculated that Cavendish may well have been autistic, possessing stellar genius, but deeply limited in his abilities to deal with his fellow man.
A major chapter of the book deals with Dmitri Mendeleev and his Periodic Table. I've often thought that the Periodic Table is one of the greatest of man's scientific achievements, and I believe that the massive amount of knowledge Mendeleev required to devise and perfect the Periodic Table are conveyed to the reader by Sacks. In passing, he also mentioned that Mendeleev and his mother walked from Siberia to Moscow to try to get Mendeleev admitted to the University of Moscow when he was a youth. They were not successful, because the University would not accept students from Siberia. They then walked to St. Petersberg, where he was accepted. He also mentioned that Mendeleev and Borodin, who was both a composer and a famous chemist, traveled to a major chemical conference together, both to attend the conference, and to play church organs they encountered in the little villages on the way. These asides are critical to "Uncle Tungsten," bringing its scientific adventurers to life in a way that most laymen would not expect.
Oliver Sacks is one of my favorite authors. He has a website devoted to his works at www.oliversacks.com . Visit it if you wish to learn more about him.
The next book I plan to read will be "Seldom Disappointed - A Memoir." It is the autobiography of the writer Tony Hillerman, whose Navajo Indian reservation mysteries have been favorites of both Catherine and me. I've actually started it, and it has great promise. Sometimes, you just can't beat a book.
CATBAR - Brain Candy #66 - Uncle Tungsten / Brian Rock / Mar 03 2003