Review by Annabel
Ever since his first two books, Stuff Matters (2012) and Liquid (2018), I’ve been waiting for Miodownik to complete his states of matter trilogy with a book about gas – well another six years after the last – here it is, complete with a fun title that just makes me add ‘gas, gas,’ with a Jagger pout every time I see it (it was a deliberate reference, we’re of a certain age!).
Miodownik is Professor of Materials and Society at UCL, and a science educator and broadcaster – his 2010 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on materials science were such fun I remember. He’s not been on our screens so much recently, but he did make a short podcast series a few months ago all about glue for BBC Radio 4 (Glued up). As a materials scientist originally, his books, lectures and broadcasts are responsible for reminding me of all the basics of the subject, told in an accessible and entertaining way.
It’s a Gas is more of the same, yet different to the previous two books. To explain the effects that gases have had on our lives requires a bit more history, but also there are many more ‘gases’ than just the elements and compounds you’ll first think of. There is also the problem of the elusive nature of gases, largely invisible, intangible, magical even – which is a word that Miodownik uses for his first chapter heading after a prologue.
This book is about how the behaviour of gases and the many different types of vapours and whiffs given off by the earth and living organisms enliven, intoxicate and frighten us. These are the gases that first occupied this Earth and have been here ever since, They are ancient and important, and their effects were first interpreted as the work of the gods, of ancient spirits, or the undead. (prologue, xvii)
What is not changed are Miodownik’s personal anecdotes, mostly amusing, that help bring the stories of the gases to life. And he begins the first chapter, ‘Magical’, which is primarily about steam, with a story about how his mum, who had a ‘reputation as the family witch’ could always find a parking space, even in busy central London, thanks to the ‘gods that oversaw the cars and traffic of the metropolis’. This leads him on neatly from today’s vehicles back into history to the first mechanical devices which led in turn to steam engines and the beginnings of mass transport and thence to power stations.
In the second chapter, ‘Delusional’ takes another gas with a long history – we’re talking nitrous oxide discovered in 1799 by Sir Humphry Davy, aka laughing gas, the first anaesthetic, but hard to regulate unless mixed with air as we use it nowadays. Unlike the now illegal for use as drugs ‘whippets’ – made for instant whipped cream dispensing.
Next comes ‘Spooky’ looking at methane and the advent of street lighting with coal gas, taking in Patrick Hamilton’s play Gaslight and Sylvia Plath’s suicide from carbon monoxide poisoning along the way. Miodownik carries on in further chapters to take more sideways looks at gases – breathing underwater with scuba gear, the power of smells to evoke memories, the anatomy of trumpets, and under the heading of ‘gods’ the power of winds and the atmosphere. He also considers vacuums, and there are chapters on the noble gases, hydrogen (cue the Hindenburg and Led Zeppelin) amongst others, and most importantly of all for us, oxygen.
The combination of science history, science and anecdote peppered with contemporary and historical references makes for a lively read flitting from one gas to another. There is perhaps less out-and-out materials science in this volume, made up for by the fascinating science history. Diagrams are few, pictures are more plentiful: from handbills advertising laughing gas shows to Joseph Wright of Derby’s famous painting ‘Experiment with an air pump’.
Miodownik has again given us a witty and considered tour through one of the states of matter. I’d go so far to say “It’s a gas, gas, gas!”
Annabel is a co-founder and editor of Shiny, and has forgotten practically everything about materials science that goes beyond Year 8! Thank goodness for great popular science books.
Mark Miodownik, It’s a Gas, (Viking, 2024) ISBN 9780241376386, hardback, 288 pp..
BUY at Blackwell’s via our affiliate link (free UK P&P)
