LIQUID

THE DELIGHTFUL AND DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES THAT FLOW THROUGH OUR LIVES

MARK MIODOWNIK Viking, 276pp, £16.99, Oldie price £13.28 inc p&p

Given that Mark Miodownik’s prize-winning first book, Stuff Matters (2013), was about solid materials, it seems logical that for his highly anticipated follow-up he has turned his attention to liquids. Liquid, as its title suggests, is a book about liquids and their various properties, all told in the entertaining, familiar style that won Miodownik – who by day is a materials scientist at University College, London – the 2017 Michael Faraday prize for science communication. The book uses a central conceit, with Miodownik describing a flight he took from London to San Francisco and pointing out along the way the histories and characteristics of all the numerous liquids that are associated with the journey, from aviation fuel and alcohol to liquid crystals (for laptop computers) and airconditioning fluids, among many others.

Liquid has been shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book of the Year, a prize that was won by its predecessor. In the Times, James Mcconnachie called the book ‘a treat’ and the author ‘a clever and likeable materials scientist with an infectious enthusiasm for his subject’, while in the Guardian, Katy Guest wrote that, once again, Miodownik ‘has written a book much like the substances it describes: exciting, anarchic and surprising’. The dissenting voice was Robin Mckie’s in the Observer, who acknowledged Miodownik’s ‘charms’ and ‘literary flair’ while lamenting the weakness of the book’s central conceit – although Mckie felt indebted to the author for the revelation that humans produce up to a litre of saliva a day.