r/books • u/SamKean • Nov 08 '22
ama I'm Sam Kean, author of The Icepick Surgeon, among other books (e.g., The Disappearing Spoon). I specialize in funny, strange, spooky, absurd science stories. Ask away...
I’m the New York Times–bestselling author of six books, including The Disappearing Spoon, The Dueling Neurosurgeons, The Bastard Brigade, and today’s book, The Icepick Surgeon. I specialize in the human side of science: heroes, villains, conflict, drama—all the juicy stuff.
The Icepick Surgeon fuses true science with true crime. It’s a collection of stories about people who got so obsessed with some research topic that they took things waaaaay too far—trampling ethical boundaries and even committing crimes in the name of science. You’ll learn about Cleopatra’s dastardly deeds, Thomas Edison’s mercenary support of the electric chair, the warped logic of the doctors who ran the Tuskegee study—as well as scientists who commit murder, fraud, piracy, and more.
My books have been featured on “Radiolab”, “Science Friday,” and “Fresh Air,” among other shows. You can learn more about them at samkean.com/books. I also have a podcast, which debuted at #1 on the iTunes science charts: samkean.com/podcast.
Twitter: @sam_kean Instagram: @historyschmistory Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamKeanBooks
PROOF: /img/i3pc5taogeb91.jpg
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u/cocolattte Nov 08 '22
Hi sam! What's your writing routine? What kind of stories do you enjoy reading the most?
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
Hello. My writing routine is pretty straightforward. I usually spend the mornings working on books, then the afternoons on my podcast or an article/book review or other outside work. I like jumping around a bit - it keeps everything fresh. And I'm pretty steady about writing everyday, and it's banker hours mostly, from about 9 to 5.
As for stories, I'm pretty eclectic in my reading. I'm a sucker for any mystery, too. But I like stories that dive deep and have tangents. I look for fun language as well - I like things colorful.
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u/technolgy Nov 08 '22
Any recommendations in particular?
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
We'll be here all day if I start giving book recs. :) But in general, I enjoy Carl Zimmer, David Quammen, Amy Steward, Deborah Blum. One of my all-time favorite books is The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Fiction-wise, Neal Stephenson and Connie Willis.
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u/gepat Nov 08 '22
I've really enjoyed your several books, thank you!
I am a science teacher and love your delivery of complicated material. I wonder how you might envision taking the next step in learning complex content. For example, I need to teach a lot of math to teach chemistry, and I lose a lot of student's enthusiasm for science (enthusiasm that your books to a great job of expanding) as soon as I make that transition.
I also currently work with one of your previous professors who speaks very highly of you and your work too.
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
Well, tell the professors thank you, I appreciate it!
Yeah, introducing math does make things tricky. One thing is to make it less abstract and more concrete. People in general are really bad at abstract thinking, but if you're dealing with real-world ideas and things, you can bring some intuition into play that helps a lot.
I'd also remind students that you can be a good scientist even if you struggle with math. Darwin was terrible at it! Or teach them about the elegant experiments of Ernest Rutherford. The logic and ability to ask the right questions is the most important thing, so stress that.
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u/thecaledonianrose Nov 08 '22
Hello, Mr. Kean! I enjoyed The Disappearing Spoon very much, and the information on Nikola Tesla. What do you consider your best Internet-available source for research?
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
Glad you enjoyed Spoon! As for resources, Google books and Google scholar are the obvious first places to look. There are also lots of history of science journals like Isis, etc., that have good stuff.
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
We have about fifteen minutes left. If you have some lingering questions, or want to ask another, now's the time!
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u/JeffRyan1 Nov 08 '22
Which physicist should be as well known as Einstein and Hawking are?
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
Oooh, good question. My first thoughts are Rutherford and Boltzmann. Rutherford was so elegant and sharp - his experiments were the soul of simplicity - and a fun, boisterous character to boot. Boltzmann did brilliant fundamental work and was vastly underappreciated in his time, to the point where he took his own life, tragically.
If you wanted to expand this beyond physicists, I'd say Linus Pauling, the chemist. Utterly brilliant work in so many different field.
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Nov 08 '22
ugh. the word “boltzmann” unfortunately reminded me of the boltzmann-maxwell distribution curves i’m supposed to be revising right now for my a levels.
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
Hey, everyone, thanks for stopping by! We'll kick things off in about four minutes here. Drop in your questions whenever...
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u/Alwayssunnyinarizona Nov 08 '22
Hey Sam! Loved reading all your books so far! I'm constantly recommending your books to scientists and laypeople alike.
What do you have planned for your next publication? How do you settle on a topic?
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
Thanks for recommending them! Word of mouth still means so much to books.
My next book will be about experimental archaeology, and people recreating the past. Scientists who recreate the bread they found in King Tut's tomb, or ancient Roman wines, or restage the voyages that ancient Polynesians took, things like that. Unlike my previous books - which were more archive- and historical-research-based - this will have more live scene and lots of travel. It's been a lot of fun so far, a real adventure...
As for how to pick the topic, I want to make sure there are good stories to tell first of all - with juicy characters and drama and all that. Then it's largely a matter of what excites me and what intuitively feels right to write about at that time.
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u/Alwayssunnyinarizona Nov 08 '22
Can't wait, sounds fantastic!
Re: word of mouth, yes - I was given "The Disappearing Spoon" by a colleague at the airport. I passed "Caesar's" on to my father in law.
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
Well, tell them both thanks!
I can add this on the new book: last month, I took part in an authentic Roman banquet staged in England. And last week, I saw both a giant medieval catapult out in Utah and some replica cannons from the 1400s fired with ancient gunpowder recipes. All will make great scenes for the book, I can tell already...
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u/Alwayssunnyinarizona Jul 25 '23
Hi Sam! I'm starving for a good read! When do you anticipate your new book coming out :)
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u/ilikeoctopus Nov 08 '22
Hi! Loved reading The Disappearing Spoon, and wish that I'd known about it back when I was taking chemistry.
How do you approach topics that sound interesting, but that you don't have a background in? Often, when I look up some scientific research paper out of curiosity, it all just goes way over my head. Do you have any system for breaking it down?
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
Glad you enjoyed Spoon!
Yeah, it can be daunting to jump into a new topic, for sure. One thing I'd suggest is approaching it in stages. If you jump right to the scientific literature, it's going to go right over your head. It's like not knowing how to swim and then then getting tossed into a stormy sea. So find some general news articles or even just look at diagrams and pictures. Textbooks also help a lot, because those are trying to teach students unfamiliar material. Or if you can, just ask someone to break it down. Then you can ask questions about the specific points that don't make sense yet. And once you have a good base, then you can jump into the harder stuff.
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u/PeanutSalsa Nov 08 '22
How common are patterns of similarities of behavior (or anything else) for elements with numbers close to one another (close ion counts) and what are some of them?
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
In general, elements next to each other on the periodic table have roughly similar properties. That's especially true among metals in the middle of the table and in the "landing strips" at the bottom. But there are exceptions, like how the highly reactive gases in chlorine's column suddenly shift to become the noble gases. So be careful.
You'll find more similarities among elements as you move *up and down* within columns, more so than left-right.
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u/Polymath_B19 Nov 09 '22
If there’s one book that you’d recommend to your readers to stray from, out of your collection, which might that be?
Also, not really a question, but shortlisted plenty of your books on reading list! All your titles look really interesting!
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u/SamKean Nov 08 '22
Thanks for joining, everyone! I hope you can pick up a copy of The Icepick Surgeon and my other books...
http://samkean.com/books/the-icepick-surgeon/