Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks

'If you did not think that gallium and iridium could move you, this superb book will change your mind’ The Times

'Uncle Tungsten is really about the raw joy of scientific understanding . . . Sacks perfectly captures the sheer thrill of finding intelligible patterns in nature’ The Guardian

‘His boyhood passion was for chemistry: and this is a marvellous memoir of his early “love affair” with it . . . It is rare to read so rich and honest a description of an intellectual coming of age’ Daily Telegraph

In Uncle Tungsten Sacks evokes, with warmth and wit, his upbringing in wartime England. He tells of the large science-steeped family who fostered his early fascination with chemistry. There follow his years at boarding school where, though unhappy, he developed the intellectual curiosity that would shape his later life. And we hear of his return to London, an emotionally bereft ten-year-old who found solace in his passion for learning. Uncle Tungsten radiates all the delight and wonder of a boy’s adventures, and is an unforgettable portrait of an extraordinary young mind.

About the Author


Oliver Sacks, M.D. is a physician, a best-selling author, and professor of neurology and psychiatry at the Columbia University Medical Center. In 2007, he was named the first Columbia University Artist, in recognition of his contributions to the arts.

He is best known for his collections of neurological case histories, including The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat (1985), Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (2007) and The Mind’s Eye (2010). Awakenings (1973), his book about a group of patients who had survived the great encephalitis lethargica epidemic of the early twentieth century, inspired the 1990 Academy Award-nominated feature film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. The New York Times has referred to him as “the poet laureate of medicine.”

Dr. Sacks is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

To find out more about other books by Oliver Sacks click on his website here...

Charlie Rose: January 28, 2002 - If you fast-forward to the 43 minute mark you’ll see Charlie Rose interview Dr. Sacks about his memoir "Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood", which explores his large family of doctors and scientists.