When kerosene (still used today as primary home lighting in areas of many countries including my island during the 6 month power outtage after hurricane Irma) was invented it saved the whales. Then came whale oil which was perfect in every way except that it meant killing off the whales, over half a million it is estimated. The oil was hard to prepare - 100 olives for 1 hour of lamp-burning, smoked or had a dangerously low flash point - or all three. So far the best thing I've learned is that oil lamps were the most advanced technology in home lighting for thousands of years. He really caught me on concrete and chocolate. I hope this is as fascinating as Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World.

He has an odd mind, this author, always highlighting something perfectly obvious you've never given a thought to. I'd never really thought of that before reading it. being as it is a messy process full of viscous liquids that are part of the enjoyment. A revulsion to the liquids of sex wouldn't have boded well for human reproduction. Deep kissing, tongue licking, a mingling of saliva is lovely, erotic and passionate. Although, the author says, a crying woman affects testosterone and men find it more difficult to get an erection. Seeing someone crying makes people sympathetic, want to put an arm around the crying person and comfort them. Saliva is fine in the mouth, but disgusting when it's drooling down the chin, stomach acid belongs in the tummy, half-chewed food, saliva and bile vomited up is beyond disgusting, poo and pee belong in the toilet, not squished underfoot, blood is supposed to stay invisble under the skin or absorbed by a Tampax, not running down the thighs. Mucus belongs in the lungs and is disgusting when it's coughed up green and yellow. Notes on reading Everybody (normal) is revolted when bodily liquids escape their proper place.

The ending was worthy of a let's-tie-up-all-the-loose-ends novel, rather than a pop science book.īut that could all just be me, others who don't find concrete any more fascinating than water, or chocolate than making a cup of tea, might 5 star it. It was set around an airplane flight to San Francisco, and all the liquids involved from kerosene to the molten rock that the tectonic plates under San Francisco float on.

It could be that I found the structure of this book a bit cutesy. I'm not sure why I didn't enjoy it as much, it could be that I didn't really find any of the liquids as fascinating as I did the materials, specifically concrete (my new obsession) and chocolate (my constant obsession) and aerogel. This book, to me, wasn't in the same class as Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World which I read, got really excited about an ordered this one.

Liquid mark miodownik