
Uncle Tungsten
Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Davis
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By:
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Oliver Sacks
Long before Oliver Sacks became a distinguished neurologist and best-selling writer, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals - also by chemical reactions (the louder and smellier the better), photography, squids and cuttlefish, H.G. Wells, and the periodic table.
In this endlessly charming and eloquent memoir, the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings chronicles his love affair with science and the magnificently odd and sometimes harrowing childhood in which that love affair unfolded.
In Uncle Tungsten we meet Sacks' extraordinary family, from his surgeon mother (who introduces the 14-year-old Oliver to the art of human dissection) and his father, a family doctor who imbues in his son an early enthusiasm for housecalls, to his "Uncle Tungsten", whose factory produces tungsten-filament lightbulbs. We follow the young Oliver as he is exiled at the age of six to a grim, sadistic boarding school to escape the London Blitz, and later watch as he sets about passionately reliving the exploits of his "chemical heroes" in his own home laboratory.
Uncle Tungsten is a crystalline view of a brilliant young mind springing to life, a story of growing up which is by turns elegiac, comic, and wistful, full of the electrifying joy of discovery.
©2001 Oliver Sacks (P)2011 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















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great ideas to encourage scientific curiosity
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Sacks discusses science and the history of science with the same enthusiasm that he had as a child, while sharing some biographical details that illuminate his subsequent career as a neurologist and observer of human perception.Interesting background for fans of Oliver Sacks.
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A OK
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Would you consider the audio edition of Uncle Tungsten to be better than the print version?
I don't know.What other book might you compare Uncle Tungsten to and why?
The Disappearing Spoon, which tells the story of the formation of Mendeleev's periodic table of the elements.Which scene was your favorite?
I enjoyed the scene where he nearly asphyxiated himself by mixing chemicals in his bedroom as a child. Any modern parent would surly take away all the chemicals. Sacks' parents promptly put him up in safer quarters and encouraged his experimentation. Surely he is a genius but this was a genius in parenting and trusting an obviously bright and driven child.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No, I enjoyed breaking it into parts as I drove to work each day.Any additional comments?
None.A childhood of science
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The enthusiasm and hunger to learn of youth!
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History of chemistry and Dr. Sack's early life.
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Always a pleasure to read about Oliver Sacks
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Boyish love of science
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If you like Chemistry you will love this book.
Lovely story telling of an educated man through an important historic time of the 20th century.
Great book
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If I had a wish to come true of meeting a living person to spend an hour with, I think It would be Oliver Sacks. Whole-brained thinker and creative as well as scientific and always wide open senses. Great book. Fascinating life as well as person.Fascinating
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