CAESAR’S LAST BREATH

(Black Swan £9.99) WITH each and every breath we take, we suck in a lungful of history.

Between one inhalation and the next, we might draw in a few molecules from 9/11 or the fall of the Berlin wall. We might even, suggests science writer Sam Kean, be breathing an atom or two of the dying breath with which Julius Caesar gasped ‘ et tu, Brute?’ to his treacherous friend-turned-murderer.

Our earth was formed from a cloud of space gas 4.5 billion years ago, and in this witty, readable book, embellished with colourful anecdotes, Kean traces the history of Earth and its inhabitants through the story of its gases.

He explains where air comes from, the ways in which humans have harnessed gases, and our changing relationship with the substance we breathe.