Oliver loved to celebrate his birthday, July 9. He would start the day with a swim, and then we would round up the usual suspects and throw a party with lots of smoked fish and bagels.
He often thought of numbers as their corresponding chemical elements (see “My Periodic Table,” in his book Gratitude), and in the photo here, he celebrates his 80th birthday by wearing a mercury t-shirt.
Today Oliver would have been … ASTATINE (85)!
We don’t know what astatine would look like: it’s highly radioactive, and its half-life is so brief it’s impossible to get a pure sample of this evanescent element.
Speaking of time vanishing, please check out the links below to find out more about The Animated Mind of Oliver Sacks. Let’s show Oliver some love today and make this film a reality!
Happy July 9th!