Hidden Wonders

The subtle dialogue between physics and elegance

Etienne Guyon, Jose Bico, Etienne Reyssat & Benoit Roman

MIT Press 2021

Pb, 311pp, £24, ISBN 9780262539890

This is a neat idea for a pop-science book. Although the concept of elegance is perhaps a bit slippery in this context, the central theme is easily grasped, as a quartet of Sorbonne profs show us a diverse selection of mostly mundane items, natural and manufactured, and explain how their beauty, utility and often counterintuitive properties are shaped by scientific laws.

In short chapters, built for dipping into, and each accompanied by a suggested home experiment, we learn why Batavian Tears – glass tear-drops – will withstand being hit on their bulbous end with a hammer, but will instantly shatter into powder if their thin end is even slightly damaged; and why prey, flying into a spider’s web at high speed, doesn’t just bounce off. (Webs contain shock absorbers.)

Here are “the oldest skyscrapers in the world” (16th century, made of earth), and the extraordinary maths involved in making clothes hang properly. Aegagropilas – balls found on beaches, formed from fragments of aquatic plants – demonstrate how “friction alone is enough to consolidate small construction”.

The photographs and other illustrations are all good, and sometimes truly memorable, as in the picture of a bubble caught in the process of bursting, and the sandcastle, made of “hydrophobic grains”, which holds together as long as it’s submerged, but collapses as soon as it’s taken out of the water.

It’s an entertaining read that will prompt the curious mind into pursuing fresh wonderings beyond its pages. It also teaches some vital life skills, such as how to stick a needle into a soap bubble without causing damage, or how to walk on eggs and leave them intact. It’s perhaps not a fortean work as such, but I can’t imagine it failing to please when kept on top of any FT reader’s cistern.

Mat Coward

★★★★