I had enough dangerous substances to poison the whole neighborhood, or blow it up, but I didn’t.
Oliver Sacks, neurologist and best-selling author, traces his boyhood fascination with science, when his first chemical experiments wakened him to the beauty and elegance of nature’s laws. The influence of his scientific family steered him early into a fascination with chemistry and numbers. This is the basis for his book Uncle Tungsten: A Chemical Boyhood, in which he speaks about memories of his family in his early life. Sacks shares stories about nearly blowing up his London home by performing experiments with potentially dangerous elements as a child, his obsession with metal at an early age, and the inadequate Cub Scout skills that led him to feeding his Scout leader cement. He speaks about science in the poetic form for which his writing has won awards and his lecture will captivate both scientists and non-scientists alike.