Liquid Rules: The Delightful & Dangerous Substances that Flow Through Our Lives
Written by Mark Miodownik
Narrated by Michael Page
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Finalist for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize Sometimes explosive, often delicious, occasionally poisonous, and always fascinating: the New York Times bestselling author of Stuff Matters offers an "entertaining discussion of the various ways our lives are enriched by fluids” (The Wall Street Journal).
We know that we need water to survive, and that, for some of us, a cup of coffee or a glass of wine can feel just as vital. But do we really understand how much we rely on liquids, or their destructive power?
Set on one of the author's transatlantic flights, Liquid Rules offers readers a tour of these formless substances, told through the language of molecules, droplets, heartbeats, and ocean waves. We encounter fluids within the plane—from hand soap to liquid crystal display screens—and without: in the volcanoes of Iceland, the frozen expanse of Greenland, and the marvelous California coastline. We come to see liquids with wonder and fascination, and to understand their potential for death and destruction.
Just as in his bestselling, award-winning Stuff Matters, Mark Miodownik’s unique brand of scientific storytelling brings his subject to life in ways that will inform and amuse science buffs and lay readers alike.
Mark Miodownik
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.
Related to Liquid Rules
Related audiobooks
The Elements We Live By: How Iron Helps Us Breathe, Potassium Lets Us See, and Other Surprising Superpowers of the Periodic Table Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Symphony in C: Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breakfast with Einstein: The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Arrival the Fittest: Solving Evolution's Greatest Puzzle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAssembling Life: How Can Life Begin on Earth and Other Habitable Planets? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5AsapSCIENCE: Answers to the World's Weirdest Questions, Most Persistent Rumors, and Unexplained Phenomena Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A World Beyond Physics: The Emergence and Evolution of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Periodic Table: Elements with Style Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's Elemental: The Hidden Chemistry in Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-made World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Einstein's Fridge: How the Difference Between Hot and Cold Explains the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Oxygen: The molecule that made the world Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, from Arsenic to Zinc Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Full Spectrum: How the Science of Color Made Us Modern Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Laws of Nature: A Little Book on Thermodynamics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chemistry for Breakfast: The Amazing Science of Everyday Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Block by Block: The Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Thermodynamics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World According to Physics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ten Days in Physics that Shook the World: How Physicists Transformed Everyday Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Science & Mathematics For You
Brain Rules (Updated and Expanded): 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quantum Physics: What Everyone Needs to Know Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thinking in Systems: A Primer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salt: A World History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Free Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gene: An Intimate History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Liquid Rules
155 ratings15 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Like Stuff Matters, Miodownik explains the scientific principles behind the every day systems we take for granted. It is beautifully written and performed in this audiobook.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What an entertaining book. Well written, humorous, intelligent! Really loved how the author linked his flight to San Francisco to the liquids he was writing about. It was a great read!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Entertaining and informative. Such materials as: kerosene, saliva, popular beverages, tar, LED and even the earth's molten core are explained in detail by someone who grasps the molecular structure of such liquids. This is by no means dry and dull. On the contrary, a wealth of information about raw materials and even their future is explained.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's shines a Ligth and understanding of how extremely vast and deep the chemistry world effects all of us. It's a must knowl8 for modern man. How can we live in a world without knowing what it is about
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Informative, entertaining, funny. It was a trifecta of awesomeness. Perfect!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was very intrigued by the description of this book. All the fluids a science writer encounters on his transatlantic flight. The narrator was fantastic and the writing was easy to understand, amusing & fun.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good fun. Science reveals that the seemingly mundane is in fact extraordinary.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Delightful and intelligent. The casual British writing style makes it feel very comfortable while being educational. Wonderfully narrated as well.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A delightfully accessible book about physical science that aims to teach you something even if this is not your usual jam. Through the connecting theme of a transatlantic flight, the author reviews how different types of liquids behave, how they help shape our world and enable our lives. This would be a suitable title for a high school level science course, even including enough bodily function humor to keep students entertained.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Science and fun!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Trivia about liquids forced into a strange format of a fake story about the author flying in a passanger plane. The story format is meant to bring humour into this but is at best tiresome.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The amount of stuff we consume these days is staggering, but there are some things that we use day in day out that barely get our attention, the water that comes out of the tap that goes into the kettle to make your coffee. The liquid soap that you use to wash your hands, the ink that stays in the pen until you scribble on a notepad, the glass of something cold that helps you relax at the end of a busy week. All of these are liquids and they all lubricate our lives in one way or another.
But, if someone was to place three glasses full of clear liquids in front of you, which could you drink that is essential to life, which would power an aircraft and which would kill you if you knocked it over?
Mark Miodownik is best placed to explain all of these things being a materials engineer and Professor of Materials and Society at UCL and in this highly entertaining journey from London to San Francisco on a plane he describes and enlightens us about all the liquids that we use in the modern world. Beginning as he passes through security, and why we can't take more than 100ml of fluids on board now, on to the pre-dinner drinks, the oceans that he is flying over and what liquids hold the plane he is on together.
The film he watches after diner allows him to explain liquid crystals and the way that most modern TV's work before he nods off and wakes up dribbling on the passenger alongside him. From a discussion on body fluids, he moves swiftly onto the delights of coffee and tea and why they don't taste quite the same over the Atlantic. A wash and brush up and then onto the history of inks, musings about clouds and liquids that sometimes think that they are solids, liquids that can flow uphill and new modern technologies like self-healing roads.
I thought that was a great companion volume to Stuff Matters and another very well written book by Miodownik. He has used a fair amount of artistic license to ensure that the narrative flows and to give him plenty of subjects to discuss as he travels from the UK to the United States. I do like the way that he talks about science in an engaging manner and the whole book is stuffed full of facts and interesting anecdotes, but there is only so much you can do from the viewpoint of an airline seat and he does veer a little off course occasionally. Well worth reading. 4.5 stars - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An engaging discussion of liquid organic and inorganic compounds in a well-researched format by a materials scientist. The author writes concise and easily-grasped overviews. Although this is a 'popular-science' approach to the topic, it was well-done without perverting the facts to suit a non-science audience.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this book on audio! It's funny, intelligent, insightful, intriguing. Tied together by our narrator's cross continental airplane ride, he takes us into the chemistry behind all sorts of liquids: coffee and tea, oceans, ink and pens, soap, tar (yes, it's a liquid!), glue and sticky pads, clouds, and much, much more. I was amused and I learned so much. Can't wait to find another of his books and download it. Recommended.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Miodownik uses the amusing conceit of a long London-to-San Francisco airline flight as an avenue to explore a dozen types of liquids (defined as anything “that flows and assumes the shape of its container”) that he encounters on the flight, including: explosives; alcohol; water; adhesives; paints and liquid crystals; bodily fluids; tea and coffee; cleaning agents; coolants; inks; clouds; and our molten planet.He’s very fun, a really good-natured guide (and often outright funny) who recounts the histories of materials and lightly describes the science behind their uses and harms, and he manages to find jumping-off points that segue into even more topics. The first chapter, on crude oil, fascinated me the most, and I also learned a lot about waves and adhesives and tea and… honestly, every chapter offered new delights about these very familiar materials.(Review based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher.)