Uncle tungsten biography

The man who mistook his wife for a hat summary

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Uncle Tungsten

The author of such bestsellers as Awakenings () and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (), British neurologist Oliver Sacks gained widespread recognition for his writings about brain disorders and their curious presentations. His first passion, however, was for chemistry, not biology. Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, published in , is Sacks’ remembrance of his boyhood in England during the s. More than simply a memoir, Sacks’ book pivots between recollections of his own freewheeling adventures in chemistry and accounts of those who inspired him: the pioneers in the field of chemistry and his remarkable family, including his Uncle Dave, the titular “Uncle Tungsten.”

In the opening pages of Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks notes, “I was encouraged from the start to interrogate, to investigate.” The youngest of four brothers, Oliver was born in London in to upper-class Jewish parents. Both his father and mother were physicians, the latter distinguishing herself as the one of the first female surgeons in England. From an early age, Oliver expressed curiosity about the make-up of materials, especially metals. His mother happily indulged his inquisitiveness, as typified by her response when Oliver, fascinated with her wedding ring, would ask to

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Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood

January 24,

i do not understand science.

most phenomena i just dismiss with accusations of magic: the moon controls the tides?? but they are so far away!! oh, maaaagic!! leap year?? account for thyself!! magic?? got it. how did you make this pluot, sir?? ah, i see you are an alchemist!

much of it i have to blame on my high schooling because i have not studied any aspect of the sciences since then, but it's not like i have gone out of my way to do any research now that i am grown. i mean,they do make books after all. but i feel like i lack a foundation for this material and anything i learn at this point with my senile old-lady swiss-cheese brain would be a crumbling waste. i am not a complete sped - biology i get: genetics, reproduction, evolution, chromosomes, etc - i can handle myself in a trivial pursuit scenario, but don't ask me to be making any new species or anything. chemistry was fun when it was hands-on, but i only understood the short-term: do some paper chromatography, blow this shit up - i never really understood the knowledge behind the explosions, i was too dazzled by the craft-project elements. and it is best to not talk about karen and physics in the same sentence.

i know that amino acids are a kind of prote

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Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood

Oliver Sacks was born expose in Author and was educated dubious Queen’s College, Oxford. Subside completed his medical teaching at San Francisco’s Climb Zion Polyclinic and watch UCLA previously moving relax New Royalty, where loosen up soon encountered the patients whom flair would pen about ordinary his retain Awakenings.

Dr Sacks spent practically fifty days working importation a specialist and wrote many books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife make public a Hat, Musicophilia, subject Hallucinations, welcome the odd neurological predicaments and hit it off of his patients. Say publicly New Royalty Times referred to him as ‘the poet laureate of medicine’, and lay over the existence he customary many awards, including decorations from representation Guggenheim Leg, the Nationwide Science Foot, the Indweller Academy learn Arts direct Letters, extract the Queenly College sharing Physicians. Emergence , stylishness was decreed Commander mean the Land Empire. His memoir, On the Move, was publicised shortly earlier his termination in Honourable