The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

Available July 12

This is nonfiction to make you sound smart over summertime gin and tonics: the human history behind the periodic table. Science magazine correspondent Kean promises to tell us why Gandhi hated iodine, how lithium saved Robert Lowell's health but hurt his poetry and why mercury reveals where Lewis and Clark pitched their tents.

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• https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1990393_1990250_1990242,00.html