Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Disappearing Spoon, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Storytelling and Science
Experimentation, Accidents, and Discovery
Nature vs. Culture
Science for Good vs. for Evil
The Expansion and Limits of Human Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
Elements might behave in a predictable way in an atomic sense, but when they come into contact with “the chaos of biology,” the results can be bewildering. In 1981, five technicians were working on a simulation spacecraft at the NASA headquarters at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The technicians undid a panel, then—immediately—peacefully passed out. Back in 1967, NASA had a policy of only having pure oxygen inside spacecrafts, rather than normal air (which contains 80 percent nitrogen). Yet, as the agency was about to tragically be reminded, oxygen makes fire rage far faster than normal air, and a fire can be provoked in pure oxygen by almost nothing—something as little as the static from Velcro.
Of all people, one might imagine that those working at NASA would understand something as seemingly simple as the relative danger of different concentrations of gas inside a spacecraft. However, the book has proven over and over that aspects of the world that seem most simple are often most confusing for scientists. A solution might look easy or obvious, but that does not mean it actually is.
Themes
In 1967, this led to three astronauts being burned to death when a spark went off inside a grounded spacecraft filled with pure oxygen. As a result, by 1981 NASA had a policy of filling spacecraft compartments with nitrogen in order to prevent such fires. Unfortunately, on this fateful day, someone accidentally signaled for nitrogen to be pumped into the spacecraft while the technicians were still inside. Two of the five technicians who lost consciousness inside the spacecraft died from lack of oxygen. Death by nitrogen exposure is frightening because no one realizes if it happens to them. Rather than a feeling of suffocation, nitrogen will cause a person to peacefully pass out. Even scarier, nitrogen is invisible and odorless.
This horrifying story shows how powerfully the balance of elements around humans can affect the body. The air is already mostly nitrogen, so it is not as if this element is entirely toxic to the human body. However, too much nitrogen will make a person lose consciousness without even realizing it.
Themes
In 1952 a Swedish doctor named Per-Ingvar Brånemark was conducting a gruesome experiment of boring holes in rabbits in order to observe how bone marrow generates blood cells. He attached little titanium “windows” the holes in the rabbit fur, yet when he tried to remove these, they remained stuck. Incredibly, this was the beginning of modern prosthesis. For centuries, humans could not figure out how to properly “integrate” prosthetics into the human body. Bone-forming cells cannot distinguish between titanium and real bone, allowing titanium to “fully integrate itself into the body.” Ever since Brånemark’s discovery it has been used for implanted teeth, sockets, hips, and fingers.
The story of Brånemark’s window getting stuck inside the rabbit he was dissecting is extraordinary. Once again, it illuminates how accidents and coincidences are so often the driving force of scientific innovation. Even the most intelligent scientists’ imaginations are starkly limited compared to all the gloriously weird, unpredictable, and unexpected quirks of the universe.
Themes
The human sensory system is even more complex than the immune system, and tricking the sense can be highly difficult. Elements can have bizarre effects on our sensory system. Coming into contact with tellurium will make a person stink of garlic, whereas if a person licks beryllium, they will find it tastes like sugar. Unfortunately, beryllium is also highly toxic. Taste buds are usually alert to poisonous foods, which is why cyanide, for example, tastes horribly bitter. However, beryllium overrides this system. Moreover, sensual experiences—such as eating something sour—really only provide an approximation of what is actually going on. For example, our mouths can easily mix up the taste of an electrical charge with sourness.
The human body’s confused reaction to elements shows how ill-equipped we are to recognize substances in the wild outside of the small group of elements and compounds that ordinarily surround us.
Themes
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Saltiness is also the result of electrical charge, but humans can similarly be tricked into experiencing saltiness by something that isn’t charged like sodium. All in all, humans are sensually ill-equipped to distinguish between elements. Kean argues that “if you inject a random element into our bloodstream or liver or pancreas, there’s almost no telling what will happen.” Iodine, which has proven to be a deceptive element more than once in the history of science, played an important role in the life of Mahatma Gandhi, who apparently despised the element. In 1930, Gandhi led what was called the Salt March in protest against the salt tax of the British colonial government.
Kean’s statement about injecting a random element into a person’s bloodstream is perhaps a little confusing, as it is not totally clear what he means by “random.” The effects of certain elements on the human body have been extensively tested, so by “random” Kean likely means the ones that haven’t been tested. In any case, the sentence is meant to emphasize that much is still totally unknown about the ways elements and the human body interact.
Themes
The salt tax was brutally greedy and oppressive. Gandhi encouraged people to produce untaxed salt, thereby breaking colonial law and (hopefully) weakening the power of the British imperial government. However, a problem arose via the fact that Western countries had started adding iodine to salt. Although there were known health benefits to doing so, Indian people were reluctant to take up the practice due to its association with Western colonizers. Huge amounts of common (non-iodized) salt were produced in India, which led to a sharp rise in birth defects. Unfortunately, the ramifications of this lack of iodine continue into the present day. The philosopher Bertrand Russell used the profound effect of iodine on the human brain as evidence that humans are purely physical beings, controlled by chemistry rather than souls.
One critique of Kean’s book might be that he tends to focus solely on Western science, when in reality there are a great diversity of indigenous scientific practices all over the world. Furthermore, Western science is increasingly acknowledging that indigenous scientific traditions often understand their local landscape better than Westerners. This is the case, for example, with the farming techniques of Aboriginal Australians, which prevent wildfires far better than Western farming practices.
Themes
