01623nam a22002297a 4500 20260611153307.0 260611s2024 |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d 9780241376386 PK-LaUMT 530 MIO-G Miodownik, Mark 12779 It's a gas : the magnificent and elusive elements that expand our world / Mark Miodownik London : Viking, 2024 xxii, 279 p. Includes bibliographical references and index. "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"-- Eng Gases-properties-history 12780 Gases-history 12781 Gases-analysis 12782 BK 141147 141147 0 0 0 0 01 01 2026-06-11 0 530 MIO-G 153072 2026-06-11 15:33:19 2026-06-11 BK