It's A Gas: The Sublime and Elusive Elements That Expand Our World

by Mark Miodownik

Overview

The New York Times bestselling author of Stuff Matters presents a rollicking guided tour of the secret lives of gases: the magnificent, strange, and fascinating substances that shape our world.

Gases are all around us—they fill our lungs, power our movement, create stars, and warm our atmosphere. Often invisible and sometimes odorless, these ubiquitous substances are also the least understood materials in our world, and always have been.

It wasn’t long ago that gases were seen as the work of ancient spirits: the sudden closing of a door after a change in airflow signaled a ghost’s presence. Scientists and engineers have struggled with their own gaseous demons. The development of high-pressure steam power in the eighteenth century literally blew away some researchers, ushering in a new era for both safety regulations and mass transit. And carbon dioxide, that noxious by-product of fossil fuel consumption, gave rise to modern civilization. Its warming properties known for centuries, it now spells ruin for our fragile atmosphere.

In It’s a Gas, bestselling materials scientist Mark Miodownik chronicles twelve gases and technologies that shaped human history. From hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and neon to laughing gas, steam, and even wind, the story of gases is the story of the space where science and belief collide, and of the elusive limits of human understanding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780358157151
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/17/2024
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	121,889
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.70(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Mark Miodownik is professor of materials and society at University College London, where he is also director of the Institute of Making. He is the author of Stuff Matters, a New York Times bestseller which won the National Academy of Sciences Communication Award for Books and the Royal Society Winton Prize, and Liquid Rules, a finalist for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize. Mark is a frequent guest on podcasts and NPR, hosts regular shows on the BBC, and was chosen by the Times as one of the one hundred most influential scientists in the UK.

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/29/2024

In this captivating study, Miodownik (Stuff Matters), a materials scientist at University College London, examines how gases and the inventions that utilize them have shaped human civilization. He notes that though nitrogen constitutes 78% of air, it remained difficult to “harvest” until the early 1900s when German chemist Fritz Haber realized that hydrogen reactions could draw nitrogen out of the air; because crops require nitrogen-rich soil, Haber’s breakthrough led to the production of fertilizers that boosted crop yields worldwide. Surveying the many uses of the “humble air valve,” Miodownik explains how its incorporation into brass instruments in the early 1800s enabled the instruments to vary pitch for the first time, and how its use in rubber wheels transformed bicycles from clunky wood and steel contraptions into a viable form of personal transportation. Elsewhere, Miodownik covers how CO₂ ’s heat-trapping qualities are driving sea level rise, how the proliferation of cyanobacteria 2.4 billion years ago generated the oxygen-rich atmosphere later organisms came to depend on, and how large-scale differences in air temperature and air pressure produce wind. Miodownik combines a specialist’s erudition with a generalist’s broad scope, producing an expansive inquiry that bounds from human history to natural science and climate research without missing a beat. It’s an exemplary work of pop science. Photos. Agent: Jo Wander, Jo Wander Management. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for IT'S A GAS and Mark Miodownik:

"A science writer and materials scientist takes readers on a lively journey . . . from the proliferation of steam power in the 1700s to our changing relationship with carbon dioxide." — New York Times Book Review

“It's not just a gas, it’s a blast. A brilliant, bracing journey though the past, present and future of the invisible stuff you can’t see, but is everywhere. Read this book and you'll never see, smell or inhale the world quite the same again.” — Ed Conway, author of Material World

"Captivating. . . Miodownik combines a specialist’s erudition with a generalist’s broad scope, producing an expansive inquiry that bounds from human history to natural science and climate research without missing a beat. It’s an exemplary work of pop science." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[Miodownik] never lets hard science get in the way of an engrossing narrative, but neither does he scrimp on substance. It would be hard to imagine a more comprehensive guide to gases for the lay reader, or one that made their crucial, interactive role in Earth’s history more apparent. Miodownik blends top-drawer expertise with a sprightly style that commands the reader’s attention first word to last.” — Kirkus Reviews

"Miodownik's breezy commentary, delivered in an appealing and conversational tone, is certain to elevate our appreciation for the gaseous sphere." — Booklist

"A witty, smart writer who has a great talent for imparting his love for the subject." — Bill Gates on Stuff Matters

“Miodownik writes with such knowledge, such enthusiasm, such a palpable love for his subject.” — Oliver Sacks on Stuff Matters

“An exhilarating journey through the invisible wonders that shape our world. With seamless storytelling and scientific flair, Mark unveils the captivating personalities of gases that fizz, pop, numb, smell, warm, and soar, illuminating the extraordinary role they play in our lives.”
— Roger Highfield, author of Virtual You

“Mark Miodownik is an exceptionally talented scientist, writer and communicator, and in this book he brings the invisible world of gas to vivid, visible life.”
— Sophie Scott, author of The Brain: 10 Things You Should Know

From the Publisher

2024-07-10
Gases seen as our technical, physiological, and emotional life-support systems.

As light(hearted) as helium and as focused as an argon laser, Miodownik’s exploration of gases and our dependence on them takes a whiff of their behavior and finds them extraordinary. Gases compose a universe of the invisible, from the oxygen we breathe to the methane that heats our homes to the atmosphere that protects all living things on Earth. The author details how we have gone from bequeathing gases with supernatural properties and intents (the caprice of the gods) to understanding the science. In the process, we have harnessed their power to our needs, devising technologies that sustain us and our civilizations. But at a cost. “Like the sorcerer’s apprentice, we have employed these powerful spirits without properly understanding how to control them,” he writes. Offering a wealth of surprises, his fascinating survey is as entertaining as it is eye-opening. Miodownik, a materials scientist, engineer, broadcaster, and professor at University College London, never lets hard science get in the way of an engrossing narrative, but neither does he scrimp on substance. It would be hard to imagine a more comprehensive guide to gases for the lay reader, or one that made their crucial, interactive role in Earth’s history more apparent. Miodownik blends top-drawer expertise with a sprightly style that commands the reader’s attention first word to last, opening most chapters with illustrative anecdotes from his childhood. But his examination of the causes that are accelerating global warming, of the double-edged quandary some gases represent, and of what humanity must do to reverse the damage is deadly serious. He does not preach, knowing all too well the practical and political complexities involved in weaning humanity off harmful gases, or even mitigating their impact.

The periodic table was never so interesting.

Kirkus Reviews