<p> There are, broadly, two categories of science books; those that focus on one thing, with only enough digression to perhaps explain background or competing theories (I&#39;m thinking of <em>The Elegant Universe</em>, for instance), and those that have a theme that try to tie together many disparate bits of scientific knowledge or history.</p> <p> Sam Kean&#39;s <a href="http://samkean.com/disappearing-spoon"><em>The Disappearing Spoon</em></a> is definitely in the latter camp. Though it certainly takes the periodic table as its jumping-off point, it&#39;s really a broad overview of the formalization of chemistry and physics as their own, separate disciplines in the 19th and 20th centuries, seen through the lens of our relationship to the not-as-fundamental-as-we-think (or, for that matter, most of the scientists being discussed thought) components of our universe.</p>