Liquid Rules

Sometimes explosive, often delicious, occasionally poisonous, but always interesting: the New York Times best-selling author of Stuff Matters show us the secret lives of liquids: the shadow counterpart of our solid "stuff."

We all know that without water we couldn’t survive, and that sometimes a cup of coffee or a glass of wine feels just as vital. But do we really understand h...

Sometimes explosive, often delicious, occasionally poisonous, but always interesting: the New York Times best-selling author of Stuff Matters show us the secret lives of liquids: the shadow counterpart of our solid "stuff."

We all know that without water we couldn’t survive, and that sometimes a cup of coffee or a glass of wine feels just as vital. But do we really understand how much we rely on liquids, or the destructive power they hold?

Set over the course of a flight from London to San Francisco, Liquid Rules offers readers a fascinating tour of these formless substances, told through the language of molecules, droplets, heartbeats, and ocean waves. Throughout the trip, we encounter fluids within the plane—from a seemingly ordinary cup of tea to a liquid crystal display screen—and without, in the volcanoes of Iceland, the frozen expanse of Greenland, and the marvelous California coastline. We come to see liquids as substances of wonder and fascination, and to understand their potential for death and destruction. Just as in Stuff Matters, Mark Miodownik’s unique brand of scientific storytelling brings liquids and their mysterious properties to life in a captivating new way.

"It's probably fair to say that most people don't find materials science an inherently exciting topic. But this opinion is nearly impossible to hold after reading anything written by Mark Miodownik. In Stuff Matters, Miodownik revealed that materials as apparently humdrum as concrete are actually amazing. In Liquid Rules, Miodownik yet again makes the seemingly mundane awe-inspiring. I'll never look at a ballpoint pen the same way again."

—Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, New York Times-bestselling authors of Soonish

"This book delivers exactly what it promises…A splendid soup of liquid-related science…It's a treat. I lost count of the number of ‘but why?’ questions it answers . . . This is a winning and hugely readable book."

—Sunday Times

"Mark Miodownik is the science communicator’s science communicator…. Once again, he has written a book much like the substances it describes: exciting, anarchic and surprising. Like the sea, it covers a lot of ground. And like a perfectly made cup of tea, it is warm, comforting and very refreshing."

—The Guardian

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 the book Stuff Matters, a New York Times bestseller which won the National Academy of Sciences Communication Award for Books and the Royal Society Winton Prize. Mark writes regularly for the Guardian, hosts regular shows on...

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 the book Stuff Matters, a New York Times bestseller which won the National Academy of Sciences Communication Award for Books and the Royal Society Winton Prize. Mark writes regularly for the Guardian, hosts regular shows on the BBC, and was chosen as by the Times as one of the one hundred most influential scientists in the UK.