It’s a Gas

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Brought to you by Penguin.

The secret life of gases - the strange, elusive and fascinating substances that shape our world, from the author of the best-selling, prize-winning Stuff Matters


Why are most gases invisible, odourless and tasteless? Why do some poison us and others make us laugh? And why do some power our engines while others make drinks fizzy? In It's a Gas, Mark Miodownik masterfully reveals an invisible world through his unique brand of scientific storytelling.

Taking us back to that exhilarating – and often dangerous – moment when scientists tried to work out exactly what they had discovered, Miodownik shows that gases are the formative substances of our modern world, each with its own weird and wonderful personality.

We see how seventeenth-century laughing gas parties led to the first use of anaesthetics in surgery, how the invention of the air valve in musical instruments gave us bicycles, cars and trainers, and how gases made us masters of the sea (by huge steamships) and skies (via extremely flammable balloons). This delight of a book reveals the immense importance of gases to modern civilisation.

'A delight' Dara O Briain

'A witty, smart writer who has a great talent' Bill Gates


©2023 Mark Miodownik (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

A delight
Dara O Briain
It's not just a gas, it’s a blast. A brilliant, bracing journey though the past, present and future of the invisible stuff you can’t see, but is everywhere.
Ed Conway, author of Material World
Hugely enjoyable. From the bouncy castle to poison gas, from The Wizard of Oz to cappuccinos, this book has it all: plenty of belly laughs, but also warnings about the state of our world
Andrea Sella, chemist and broadcaster
With seamless storytelling and scientific flair, Mark unveils the captivating personalities of gases that fizz, pop, numb, smell, warm, and soar, illuminating the extraordinary role they play in our lives
Roger Highfield, Science Director at the Science Museum
Mark Miodownik is an exceptionally talented scientist, writer and communicator, and in this book he brings the invisible world of gas to vivid, visible life
Sophie Scott, author of The Brain: 10 Things You Should Know

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