Disappearing Spoon Chapter 2 Summary

The chapter opens with discussing that, originally, molecules were named based on an old Germanic system that named every exact protein structure, but in the 1960's as "a number of quick amino acid sequencing tools become available" scientists realized this was not terribly viable, as one protein in particular, if spelled out this way, would be 189,819 letters long. Then, moving to genealogy, Kean discusses both the similarities and great differences of elements in the same columns, specifically carbon, silicon, and germanium. Carbon is so miraculous because of the way it forms bonds and it would seem, especially to science fiction fans, that silicon, which shares many characteristics would be a prime candidate for an alternative form of life. Yet the fact that silicon only becomes gaseous at an extremely high temperature makes that idea significantly less feasible. Of these three elements, though, germanium is the "black sheep." Despite the fact that it was the first element to be used to make a solid transistor that eliminated the need to old vacuum tubes, silicon came in and stole all of its glory because it is much more abundant and therefore cheaper and doesn't stall at high temperatures.