We live on a watery planet yet in many ways we know so little about
H2O. Water gets the full treatment here in an exploration of all
that is known about that mystical and essential substance for life.
This book manages to be part science history and part cultural
exploration, with a substantial dose of chemistry, physics, ecology
and basic biology rolled into the mix. It provides a rare inside
look at the daily goings on in science, offering an in-depth story,
written with care, scholarship and erudition, and for dedicated
readers there are full notes and references. Writer Ball is a
senior editor at Nature and also writes for New Scienctist and
other publications. His other books The Self-Made Tapestry and
Designing the Molecular World have won acclaim. Brilliant in
conception, this latest book is unlikely to be superceded for many
years. (Kirkus UK)
The brilliantly told and gripping story of the most familiar - yet,
amazingly, still poorly understood - substance in the universe:
Water. The extent to which water remains a scientific mystery is
extraordinary, despite its prevalence and central importance on
Earth. Whether one considers its role in biology, its place in the
physical world (where it refuses to obey the usual rules of
liquids) or its deceptively simple structure, there is still no
complete answer to the question: what is water? Philip Ball's book
explains what, exactly, we do and do not know about the strange
character of this most essential and ubiquitous of substances. H20
begins by transporting its readers back to the Big Bang and the
formation of galaxies to witness the birth of water's constituent
elements: hydrogen and oxygen. It then explains how the primeval
oceans were formed four billion years ago; where water is to be
found on other planets; why ice floats when most solids sink; why,
despite being highly corrosive, water is good for us; why there are
at least fifteen kinds of ice and perhaps two kinds of liquid
water; how scientists have consistently misunderstood water for
centuries; and why wars have been waged over it. Philip Ball's
gloriously offbeat and intelligent book conducts us on a journey
through the history of science, folklore, the wilder scientific
fringes, cutting-edge physics, biology and ecology, to give a
fascinating new perspective on life and the substance that sustains
it. After reading this book, drinking a glass of water will never
be the same again.
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Wed, 25 Jan 2023 | Review
by: Tanya K.
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