This sad news story reminded me I had recently read Oliver Sacks childhood memoir
Uncle Tungsten – Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
Reminded me of myself, even the Nitrogen Iodide trick, though I never went so far as to get a fume-cupboard installed in the home.
This book underlies everything else Dr Sacks has written, and is worthy to stand with the great scientific memoirs, for its passion, its insight, its sense of history and its felicity. – Paul Theroux.
A must-read for anyone who’d admit to having learned the Periodic Table by heart 😉