Carbon, It’s Elementary, Dear Reader
Like most American high school students, I was required to take Chemistry and English. Chemistry thrilled only by way of the absurdity of allowing kids like me to play with volatile compounds and an open flame. English provided little of that thrill save, perhaps, Holden Caulfield’s excessive swearing or Huckleberry Finn’s audacity in heading down the big river after faking his own death.
I took Mark Twain’s advice to heart and decided I would not let school get in the way of my education. So in lieu of college, I set out to have a by the Italian chemist and writer Primo Levi. I read it. I liked it. I read it again. No, I loved it.
