The Disappearing Spoon: Chapter 6 Summary and Reflections

In this chapter, the focus switches from small chemical warfare to world ending possibilities. The author talks about a man named Henry Moseley who, with the help of several other scientists,  laid the ground work for understanding the method to madness of the periodic table while also figuring out which elements should exist on the periodic table. After these discoveries, scientists across the world began element hunting for the missing pieces to the table. After this the history of nuclear ware far was discussed as well as the tie between these scientific events and the world events that were occurring at the same time. He discussed how the discovery of the neutron soon led to the studying of decay and radioactivity.  Plutonium and cobalt are then discussed in affiliation to the Manhattan Project. The hypothesis and effects of the real possibility of nuclear bombs are talked about, and it came the the conclusion that cobalt would yield the biggest catastrophe. I thought this chapter personally was a I little scary due to the fact that one compound could be the end of the earth. It was also crazy to think how many scientists know how to produce these devastating compounds. I like how science is the key to life and death of practically everything on earth and how much science plays a role in everything. Nuclear science is very scary but very cool and this chapter really showed me how big of a deal it is in science.