X-rays revealed that some people were born without a corpus callosum, and they seemed just fine. Sam Kean bearcallosumcorpus Change image and share on social
If you had to sum up chemistry in one sentence, it might be this: Atoms need to have full shells of electrons to feel satisfied, and different elements steal, shed, or borrow different numbers of electrons to achieve a full shell. Sam Kean achieveatomborrow share on social
I didn't mind staying home from school and medicating myself with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Being sick always gave me another chance to break an old-fashioned mercury thermometer, too. Sam Kean breakchancechocolate Change image and share on social
The most profound change that genetics brings about might not be scientific at all. It might be mental and even spiritual enrichment: a more expansive sense of who we humans are, existentially, and where we came from, and how we fit with other life on earth. Sam Kean bringchangeearth share on social
Even if we never cure a single disease, the Human Genome Project and other ventures will have been worth it. Sam Kean curediseasegenome Change image and share on social
Everywhere in the universe, the periodic table has the same basic structure. Even if an alien civilization's table weren't plotted out in the castle-with-turrets shape we humans favor, their spiral or pyramidal or whatever-shaped periodic table would naturally pause after 118 elements. Sam Kean alienbasiccastle share on social
Cancer is really a DNA disease... We have these certain genes that prevent our cells from growing out of control at the expense of the body. And it's a pretty good, robust system. But if a couple of these genes fail, then that's when cancer starts, and cells start growing out of control. Sam Kean bodycancercell share on social
Polonium is, frankly, pretty useless, and no country in the world except Russia bothered to refine it by the late 2000s. Sam Kean 2000sbothercountry Change image and share on social
Genes are like the story, and DNA is the language that the story is written in. Sam Kean dnagenelanguage Change image and share on social
The body tends to treat elements in the same column of the periodic table as equivalents. Sam Kean bodycolumnelement Change image and share on social
