Caesar's Last Breath: And Other True Tales of History, Science, and the Sextillions of Molecules in the Air Around Us

by Sam Kean

Overview

The Guardian's Best Science Book of 2017: the fascinating science and history of the air we breathe.

It's invisible. It's ever-present. Without it, you would die in minutes. And it has an epic story to tell.

In Caesar's Last Breath, New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean takes us on a journey through the periodic table, around the globe, and across time to tell the story of the air we breathe, which, it turns out, is also the story of earth and our existence on it. With every breath, you literally inhale the history of the world.

On the ides of March, 44 BC, Julius Caesar died of stab wounds on the Senate floor, but the story of his last breath is still unfolding; in fact, you're probably inhaling some of it now. Of the sextillions of molecules entering or leaving your lungs at this moment, some might well bear traces of Cleopatra's perfumes, German mustard gas, particles exhaled by dinosaurs or emitted by atomic bombs, even remnants of stardust from the universe's creation.

Tracing the origins and ingredients of our atmosphere, Kean reveals how the alchemy of air reshaped our continents, steered human progress, powered revolutions, and continues to influence everything we do. Along the way, we'll swim with radioactive pigs, witness the most important chemical reactions humans have discovered, and join the crowd at the Moulin Rouge for some of the crudest performance art of all time. Lively, witty, and filled with the astounding science of ordinary life, Caesar's Last Breath illuminates the science stories swirling around us every second.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316381659
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	06/12/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	375,324
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Sam Kean is the New York Times bestselling author of Caesar's Last Breath, The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, The Disappearing Spoon, and The Violinist's Thumb, all of which were also named Amazon top science books of the year.

The Disappearing Spoon was a runner-up for the Royal Society of London's book of the year for 2010, and The Violinist's Thumb and The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons were nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award in 2013 and 2015, as well as the AAAS/Subaru SB&F prize.

His work has appeared in the Best American Nature and Science Writing, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, Psychology Today, Slate, Mental Floss, and other publications, and he has been featured on NPR's "Radiolab," "All Things Considered," and "Fresh Air."

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Last Breath 3

I Making Air: Our First Four Atmospheres

Chapter 1 Earth's Early Air 17

Interlude: The Exploding Lake 43

Chapter 2 The Devil in the Air 49

Interlude: Welding a Dangerous Weapon 75

Chapter 3 The Curse and Blessing of Oxygen 81

Interlude: Hotter than the Dickens 111

II Harnessing Air: The Human Relationship With Air

Chapter 4 The Wonder-Working Gas of Delight 121

Interlude: Le Pétomane 151

Chapter 5 Controlled Chaos 158

Interlude: Steeling Yourself for Tragedy 185

Chapter 6 Into the Blue 196

Interlude: Night Lights 223

III Frontiers: The New Heavens

Chapter 7 The Fallout of Fallout 231

Interlude: Albert Einstein and the People's Fridge 259

Chapter 8 Weather Wars 268

Interlude: Rumbles from Roswell 293

Chapter 9 Putting on Alien Airs 304

Acknowledgments 327

Notes and Miscellanea 329

Works Cited 357

Index 363

What People are Saying About This

Author of Paper and Salt - Mark Kurlansky

“The most fun to be had from nonfiction is a good science book, with a writer of craft who can capture both the excitement and the elegance of science, the incredible fact that this is really how it works. Sam Kean is such a writer and Caesar’s Last Breath is such a book. An enormous pleasure to read.”

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Caesar's Last Breath

"Sam Kean has done it again - this time clearly and entertainingly explaining the science of the air around us. He is a gifted storyteller with a knack for finding the magic hidden in the everyday."—Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive

"The most fun to be had from nonfiction is a good science book, with a writer of craft who can capture both the excitement and the elegance of science, the incredible fact that this is really how it works. Sam Kean is such a writer and Caesar's Last Breath is such a book. An enormous pleasure to read."—Mark Kurlansky, author of Paper and Salt

"Fascinating stories, so insightful, informative, and disarmingly written. It gave this astronaut a new respect for the air around us all, and made me delightfully more aware of each breath I take."—Col. Chris Hadfield, author of An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

"A witty book that turns the science of the stuff we breathe into a delightful romp through history. Kean, an award-winning science writer... has done it again, using his free-wheeling style to translate hard scientific facts into lively stories."—Kirkus

"Riveting.... Kean has a knack for distilling chemistry to its essential elements, using stories and humor.... this is a dose of fresh air.—Library Journal

"Kean pumps chemical and historical trivia into this tale about air and the gases of which it is composed....Entertaining."—Publishers Weekly

"Richly informative.... Once again, Kean proves his mettle as one of science literature's most gifted practitioners."—Booklist

"Kean's ability to explain with clear, vivid analogies provides diverse readers access to previously remote scientific concepts.... Informative and well organized. He inarguably succeeds with his goal of 'mak[ing] these invisible stories of gases visible.'"—Andrea Jenney, Science Magazine

"In Caesar's Last Breath, [Kean] takes on the science of gases in his trademark effervescent, loopy style.... a lively, rewarding journey through the evolution of Earth's gaseous atmosphere."—Shelf Awareness

"[Caesar's Last Breath] brims with such fascinating tales of chemical history that it'll change the very way you think about breathing.... Kean crams the book full of wild yarns told with humorously dramatic flair.... The effect is oddly intimate, the way all good storytelling is — you feel like you're sharing moments of geeky amusement with a particularly hip chemistry teacher."—Chelsea Leu, San Francisco Chronicle

"Entertaining... with sly wit and boyish wonder"—Discover Magazine

"Compelling stuff, written with verve and in a style that veers between simple lightheartedness and open jocularity.... Eminently accessible and enjoyable."—Robin McKie, The Guardian

"A page-turner.... Kean clearly delights in weaving in the unexpected... compelling narrative of geologic history."—Science News

"Delightful.... Mixes science and history.... pointing out that something that as basic as air is much more complicated than you might realize."—Sarah Sloat, Inverse

"With fizzy... humor and an exuberant enthusiasm for scientific ephemera, [Kean] entices us to explore the alchemy of air and atmosphere."—BookPage

"Kean illuminates the science in everything from Earth's vaporous origins to the function of hydrogen in early aeronautic balloons and the ammonia and butane that Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard harnessed in the 1930s for a novel refrigerator."—Nature.com

"There is no denying the pleasure and indeed the wealth of scientific information to be obtained from reading Caesar's Last Breath."—Financial Times

A "lively tome"—New York Post

"An engaging summer read and worth becoming entangled."—Sheilla Jones, Winnipeg Free Press

Praise for The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons:

Longlisted for the 2015 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

One of Amazon's Best Books of the Year: Science

One of The A.V. Club's Best Books of 2014

A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist: Nonfiction

"This is Sam Kean's finest work yet, an entertaining and offbeat history of the brain populated with mad scientists, deranged criminals, geniuses, and wretched souls. The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons is one of those books that will have you following your friends around, reading passages out loud, until they snatch the book away from you and read it for themselves. Good luck getting it back."—Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist

"Put your Netflix queue on hold. Sam Kean's The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons will command your full attention from the first page. It's not just an engaging guide to mysteries of existence; it's compelling story-telling for anyone with a taste for the bizarre and metaphysical."—William Poundstone, author of Rock Breaks Scissors

"In tale after tale, best-selling author Kean provides a fascinating, and at times gloriously gory, look at how early efforts in neurosurgery were essentially a medical guessing game.... Entertaining and quotable, Kean's writing is sharp, and each individual story brings the history of neuroscience to life. Compulsively readable, wicked scientific fun."—Kirkus

Praise for The Violinist's Thumb:

Named one of Entertainment Weekly's Best Books of 2012; one of Amazon's Best Books of the Year; and a Publishers Weekly Editors Pick

"Kean's accessible genetic overview, written for the layman, is often as simple and elegant as a double helix."—Keith Staskiewicz, Entertainment Weekly

"Kean is one of America's smartest and most charming science writers, and his new book could be perfect for summer readers who prefer some substance with their fun."—Michael Schaub, National Public Radio

"Science is made fun whenever best-selling author Kean...is narrating."—Susannah Cahalan, New York Post

"Kean succeeds because his writing is funny, clever and altogether effervescent. His bestseller The Disappearing Spoon, about the periodic table, had the trick of finding the human-interest stories that open up the science. This one has the same knack."—The Times (UK)

From the Publisher

05/15/2017
Kean (The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons) pumps chemical and historical trivia into this tale about air and the gases of which it is composed. His style ranges from buoyant to jittery and he bounces ideas around as though they were ping-pong balls. Math buffs may enjoy determining how many calories it takes to vaporize a human body or how many oxygen molecules a human needs every 24 hours; other readers will content themselves with trying to decipher the chemical breakdown of their next breath. The air in that breath, Kean points out, is nearly as old as the Earth and includes not only traces of Caesar’s last exhalation but traces of every gas-emitting being or thing on the planet—including volcanoes, bombs, farms, and restaurant kitchens. While discussing the gases of which air is composed, Kean describes many relevant engineering feats, such as the steam engine, synthetic fertilizer, anesthesia, dynamite, steel production, the hot-air balloon, and more. He provides historical vignettes about such phenomena as spontaneous combustion and the first bank robbery done via blowtorch. Kean also considers how the relationship between humans and air has changed in the era of nuclear power, refrigeration, space exploration, and global warming. The result is a hodgepodge of ephemera that is lightweight and entertaining. Agent: Rick Broadhead, Rick Broadhead & Assoc. (July)

Publishers Weekly

05/01/2017
Kean (The Disappearing Spoon), purveyor of narrative popular science, grasps at the chemical makeup of what we breathe. Divided into three sections—how our atmosphere came to be, how gases have shaped humanity, and how humans have harnessed gases over time—this book opens with the riveting and macabre story of the 1980 eruption of Washington State's Mount St. Helens, whose volcanic heat vaporized a curmudgeonly innkeeper who refused to evacuate. Kean also profiles the German chemists whose discovery of ammonia led to World War I's devastating chemical warfare and the lifesaving development of gaseous anesthetics for surgeries, and—no joke—a 19th-century French "fartiste" with a prodigious ability to produce musical flatulence. Kean has a knack for distilling chemistry to its essential elements, using stories and humor to soften a subject that might otherwise trigger unpleasant flashbacks to high school lab class. VERDICT For anyone interested in the invisible forces that sustain life, this is a dose of fresh air. [Prepub Alert, 1/23/17.]—Chad Comello, Morton Grove P.L., IL

Library Journal

2017-04-30
A witty book that turns the science of the stuff we breathe into a delightful romp through history.Kean (The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery, 2014, etc.), an award-winning science writer whose previous books may have sounded off the wall but tackled serious subjects, has done it again, using his free-wheeling style to translate hard scientific facts into lively stories. He divides the narrative into three sections, the first of which examines the origins of the air on our planet. Here, we learn about the contribution of volcanic eruptions, including a diverting piece on one unfortunately stubborn resident of Mount Saint Helens, the eruption of which served as "the greatest geology lesson in American history." In the second section, Kean takes up the various components of air, starting with the major one, nitrogen, and concluding with the much rarer helium and the noble gases. Here, each chapter explores how human beings have exploited the different gases, which gives the author the opportunity to tell more entertaining stories, including ones about anesthesia and ballooning. In the third section, Kean takes a look at recent changes in the composition of our air and at the significance of the atmospheres of other planets. Of special interest, however, are the interspersed sections called "Interludes," in which the author tells related human interest anecdotes—e.g., an exploding lake in Cambodia, a failed bank robbery in Germany, spontaneous combustion of humans, and the special talents of Le Pétomane, a highly paid "fartiste" at the Moulin Rouge. Kean cannot resist sharing other gems he uncovered in his research, and readers will appreciate them. For these, see the back-of-the-book section, "Notes and Miscellanea." Some are priceless. Great fun for general readers curious about our world and an especially appropriate gift for a young person considering a career in the sciences.

Kirkus Reviews