The Disappearing Spoon Chapter 2

Chapter 2:Near Twins and Black Sheep: The Genealogy of Elements
Summary:

In the chapter, “Near Twins and Black Sheep; the Genealogy of Elements”, the author elaborates on the existing relationships between germanium, silicon, and carbon. The author starts off by explaining how scientists first named proteins in long words where some protein names consisted of more than a thousand letters. He then transitions to talk about carbon and how it is the backbone of amino acids. He explains that the amino acids are able to bunch together due to carbon who desires to fill its outer energy level. In addition, the author wrote that carbon is able to build various elaborate chains since it interacts with many other elements to obtain the four electrons that it needs to completely fill its outer energy level.

Furthermore, the author goes on to talking about the similarities which exists between silicon and carbon. He mentions how they both have the same amount of valence electrons and how silicon in a way can substitute carbon due to their similarities. However, they do share some differences because silicon dioxide can be quite fatal to life, whereas carbon dioxide isn't  dangerous to life. Silicon-based life would be much more complicated, especially seeing as how there would be fewer options when storing chemical energy and creating chemical hormones. It's interesting to note that organisms, such as sea urchins, are able to use silicon for structural support. The author then goes on and shifts his focus on to the “black sheep” of the family, germanium. He talks about Bardeen and Brattain, who came up with the first transistor made of germanium, and Shockley, who claimed credit for the transistor. Although, the germanium transistor soon lost its popularity to a silicon transistor due to it being cheap and available. The problem with the silicon transistor was solved by Kirby who figured out that carving all of the components of the circuit from one block of semiconductor would be easier.

Reflection:

I really like this chapter of the book because it was quite interesting. The title it's itself expressed the focus of the chapter, for the “Near Twins” represent silicon and carbon and the “Black Sheep” is described to be the germanium that soon lost its popularity. I very much enjoyed the analogies present in this chapter as well. Before reading this chapter, I wasn't aware about the great similarities between carbon and silicon. I really didn't know that germanium was once used instead of silicon for transistors. It was very interesting to find out that, in the past, scientists would name proteins in long words and that the name itself could help reconstruct the whole molecule.