The Disappearing Spoon Chapter 2
Summary:
In the beginning of the first paragraph it first starts off by talking about the history of the word “honorificabilitudinitatibus” by saying how Shakespeare had a go with it. The word would be considered very long to those with a short vocabulary, but really this word is nothing much when it is compared to the long words that we have nowadays. Not only is this word considered to be nothing much when compared to the English language, but if you were to try to find the longest word in history, chances are that it would be impossible since new words are always being created. Whether it be a word the was combined together with other words or a word that was was created to sound like pure nonsense, there will always be a word that is longer than another word. However, there is a word that may currently be the longest word to have ever been created in the English language and its the name of an important protein in the tobacco mosaic virus. Trying to write down the word without stopping would most-likely give you a cramp and trying to say the word would put you out of breath before even getting half-way through it. The word has a letter count of 1,185 and is probably a correct description of what hell is like.
After it finished showing just how long the word was, it then started saying how the most common letter “e” appear less times than the uncommon letter “y”. Plus, how the letter “l” accounts for around 22 percent of the entire word and how there was a pattern with at which point the “y” and “l” would show itself in the word. It then starts saying information as to why amino acids always bunch themselves together and how we should feel bad for carbon since it must do more work than it should. Later, I get depressed knowing that there is an even longer name than the 1,185 word and it’s 189,819 letters long. Luckily, scientists have common sense, most of them at least, and decide to shorten the word and call it “Titin”. Then it’s explained as to why silicon could be considered as carbon’s alternative and the reason to that would be because silicon also has the same problem as carbon when it comes to them both needing 4 more electrons. After so many dreams are crushed by saying that alien life most-likely doesn’t exist by simply saying that silicon isn’t exactly like carbon.
A little later it is then explained that one of the major reasons why the dinosaurs died out may have been because of the silica that got spread out in the atmosphere. Silica is very dangerous to us because of how harmful it is to our lungs if we breath it in. The asteroid or comet that hit Earth contained it and once it made impact, the silica spread itself around the world and killed any dinosaur that made contact with it. Although there are some organisms that are made up of silicon, they don’t do much of anything and it would be impossible to imagine them doing much of anything. Furthermore, now knowing this information even more dreams of alien life were destroyed since even if they are found at one point, they wouldn’t at all be like those from sci fi movies. I am then shown a historical story involving the use of germanium where a group of three men try to create small silicon amplifiers that could replace vacuum tubes. William Shockley, an engineer and physicist, experimented for 2 years until he gave up and dumped his work onto his subordinates, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. Bardeen and Brattain then try creating silicon amplifiers , but instead of silicon they try using germanium instead. Although germanium is known to be an unfruitful element when it comes to experimenting, they tried using it instead of silicon because germaniums’ outer electrons sit in a higher level than silicons’ does. In the end they were correct and it it worked out well for them, until Shockley found out about this and tried to make it seem that he did most of the work when really he did nothing. After returning, Shockley banished Bardeen from working on the project and soon after Bardeen quit working at Bell Labs. Germanium soon got dumped, Bardeen and sadly Shockley too both got all of the Nobel Prizes in physics in 1956, and another crisis presented itself.
A man named Jack Kilby, six feet six and slow-talking from Milwaukee, then appeared. Kilby had spent a decade in Milwaukee before getting a job at Texas Instruments in 1958 and although he trained in electrical engineering, he was hired to solve a computer hardware problem instead of what he expected. He worked there with thousands of people with all of them hired there to only work on wiring transistors with nobody supervising them. Knowing that there was nobody there to supervise them, he decided to work on a new idea he had called “Integrated circuit”. He used germanium for his prototype instead of silicon because, unlike most other people, he knew that germanium wasn’t as brittle as silicon was. His idea helped free engineers from the hell of having to hand-wire everything and made work less complex and easier since it also allowed engineers to automate the carving process and make the first real computer chips. However, yet again Shockley found a way to take Kilby’s credit by having one of his protégés take Kilby’s rights away from his company. Later on once again, Germanium was put down because of how cheap and available silicon was. Overall, we should be thankful towards the people that got the idea to use germanium and do all the work.
Reflection:
Overall, I must say once again that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this for several reasons. First of all, I again learned many new things; for instance, I didn’t know that there existed people that were crazy enough to call that 1,185 letter word a word even though I’m pretty sure people would rather do an essay than try to write and spell-check it. Second of all, I enjoyed reading the history of how people were able to use germanium in a positive way to create the common items that we use today. Third of all, I learned that Shockley is an ass and that he doesn’t deserve the credit that he got back then when instead Kilby and Bardeen should have only been the ones to have gotten the credit. Fourth of all, I also learned that dreams don’t always come true and that I wish the people that discovered many of the elements on the periodic table should have gotten the credit that they deserve. If anything, I’d say that I disliked finding out just how long words could get.
Guiding Questions:
- Pre-reading: Where can we find the elements carbon and silicon in everyday life?
For silicon, you can always find it in sand and silicon is the seventh-most abundant element in the universe and second-most on Earth; even the computers that we use contain silicon. For carbon, it is in nearly every biological compound in our bodies, we breath out carbon dioxide, it could be found in many types of minerals, and it’s inside every single animal.
2. What properties of carbon make it such an appropriate element as the foundation for silicon is used in computers, beating out the element carbon.
3.Give two reasons why building life forms from silicon is much more challenging than using carbon.
That is because silicon is a solid and not a gas.
4. Summarize the story of William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain in a paragraph. Which of the three was the least deserving of the Nobel Prize?
( I copied part of one of the paragraphs because I didn’t think I needed to write another paragraph of something I had already written.) William Shockley, an engineer and physicist, experimented for 2 years until he gave up and dumped his work onto his subordinates, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. Bardeen and Brattain then try creating silicon amplifiers , but instead of silicon they try using germanium instead. Although germanium is known to be an unfruitful element when it comes to experimenting, they tried using it instead of silicon because germaniums’ outer electrons sit in a higher level than silicons’ does. In the end they were correct and it it worked out well for them, until Shockley found out about this and tried to make it seem that he did most of the work when really he did nothing. After returning, Shockley banished Bardeen from working on the project and soon after Bardeen quit working at Bell Labs. Germanium soon got dumped, Bardeen and sadly Shockley too both got all of the Nobel Prizes in physics in 1956. Overall, the least deserving of the Nobel Prize is, of course, Shockley.
5. Can you think of another situation in history when someone stole someone else’s scientific discovery?
If I remember correctly I think Thomas Jefferson stole the credit of the invention of the light bulb.
6. Jack Kilby invented the computer chip, in order to get rid of a problem called the tyranny of numbers.
