Mark Miodownik

Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does any material look and behave the way it does? These are the sorts of questions that renowned materials scientist Mark Miodownik constantly asks himself. Miodownik studies objects as ordinary as an envelope and as unexpected as concrete cloth, uncovering the fascinating secrets that hold together our physical world. In Stuff Matters, Miodownik explores the materials he encounters in a typical morning, from the steel in his razor to the foam in his sneakers. Full of enthralling tales of the miracles of engineering that permeate our lives, Stuff Matters will make you see stuff in a whole new way.

This fascinating new book by the bestselling scientist and engineer Mark Miodownik is an expert tour of the world of the droplets, heartbeats, and ocean waves that we come across every day. Structured around a plane journey that sees encounters with substances from water and glue to coffee and wine, Liquid Rules shows how these liquids can bring death and destruction as well as wonder and fascination.From László Bíró's revolutionary pen and Abraham Gesner's kerosene to cutting-edge research on self-repairing roads and liquid computers, Miodownik uses his winning formula of scientific storytelling to bring the everyday to life. He reveals why liquids can flow up a tree but down a hill, why oil is sticky, how waves can travel so far, and how to make the perfect cup of tea. Here are the secret lives of substances.

The New York Times bestselling author of Stuff Matters presents a rollicking guided tour of the secret lives of 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 they were seen as the work of ancient 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 byproduct of fossil fuel consumption and cow burps, gave rise to modern civilization. Its warming properties known for centuries, it now spells ruin for our fragile atmosphere.As bestselling science writer and materials scientist Mark Miodownik shows in this entertaining, often hilarious tour of gases, we’ve long harnessed the power of gases to create life-altering technologies, without fully understanding their potential.In the perfect follow-up to his bestselling Stuff Matters and Liquid Rules, It’s a Gas 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 that tricky space where science and belief collide, and of the elusive limits of human understanding.

Zachary Eastwood-Bloom graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2010, where he studied ceramics and glass. His work explores diverse materials including ceramics, glass, bronze, jesmonite, sound and video. His interest lies in the intersections between the physical and the immaterial and the historical and the cutting-edge. He references classical imagery, adopts digital aesthetics and uses leading technologies. For one body of work, Eastwood-Bloom used 3D software to scan busts from the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts, which he digitally manipulated before 3D printing and casting into clay, the process transitioning from the physical through the digital and resulting back in the physical. Eastwood-Bloom has produced a public commission for the London o ce of Marex Spectron and is currently working on a commission for Aviva Investors in collaboration with Campbell Architects to create a work that will be integrated into the fac¸ade and interior of a new building in Hanover Square. is catalogue was published by Pangolin London to coincide with their exhibition of Eastwood-Bloom’s works in autumn 2017. It regroups many of his works and is introduced by Mark Miodownik.

«Salite a bordo di Gassss... di Mark Miodownik, in un viaggio esilarante attraverso le meraviglie invisibili che danno forma al nostro mondo.»Roger Highfield, direttore scientifico del Science Museum Group«Non è solo gas, è un'esplosione! Un viaggio brillante e avvincente nel passato, nel presente e nel futuro delle sostanze invisibili.»Ed Conway, autore di «La materia del mondo»«Perché la maggior parte dei gas è invisibile, inodore e insapore? Cosa li rende capaci di avvelenarci, farci ridere o alimentare motori e bevande frizzanti? Con uno stile vivace e arguto, Mark Miodownik svela i segreti di un universo impalpabile, intrecciando scienza e meraviglia in un racconto irresistibile e illuminante.»Bill GatesApparentemente, il nostro mondo è fatto di cose che possiamo toccare e sentire, come sedie, libri, tazze di tè. Eppure esiste una classe di materiali invisibili che ci circonda e ci sono i gas. Ogni giorno una persona media inala dodici chili d’aria, una miscela che non solo ci sostiene, ma rende abitabile il pianeta. Nello spazio, i gas danno vita alle stelle; sulla Terra, influenzano l’umore, la salute e persino il comportamento degli esseri fumi, vapori, umidità, profumi e tossine giocano un ruolo straordinario nelle nostre vite. Tuttavia, per la maggior parte del tempo, trascuriamo le meraviglie dei gas.Con uno stile brillante e inconfondibile, Mark Miodownik ci svela i segreti di queste sostanze antiche e potenti, che hanno plasmato la vita sulla Terra. Dai vapori che i popoli del passato attribuivano agli dèi, alle valvole d’aria che ci hanno regalato biciclette, automobili e scarpe da ginnastica, fino alla crisi climatica alimentata dall’anidride carbonica, questo libro ripercorre la storia dei gas e delle invenzioni che hanno rivoluzionato la modernità.In un viaggio che unisce scienza, storia e curiosità, Miodownik esplora il lato esilarante, terrificante e sorprendente dei gas, ricordandoci che spesso sono proprio le forze più invisibili quelle che danno forma al nostro mondo.