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Caesar's Last Breath
- Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's summary
The fascinating science and history of the air we breathe.
It's invisible. It's ever present. Without it, you would die in minutes. And it has an epic story to tell.
In Caesar's Last Breath, New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean takes us on a journey through the periodic table, around the globe, and across time to tell the story of the air we breathe, which, it turns out, is also the story of earth and our existence on it.
With every breath, you literally inhale the history of the world. On the Ides of March, 44 BC, Julius Caesar died of stab wounds on the Senate floor, but the story of his last breath is still unfolding; in fact you're probably inhaling some of it now. Of the sextillions of molecules entering or leaving your lungs at this moment, some might well bear traces of Cleopatra's perfumes, German mustard gas, particles exhaled by dinosaurs or emitted by atomic bombs, even remnants of stardust from the universe's creation.
Tracing the origins and ingredients of our atmosphere, Kean reveals how the alchemy of air reshaped our continents, steered human progress, powered revolutions, and continues to influence everything we do. Along the way we'll swim with radioactive pigs, witness the most important chemical reactions humans have discovered, and join the crowd at the Moulin Rouge for some of the crudest performance art of all time. Lively, witty, and filled with the astounding science of ordinary life, Caesar's Last Breath illuminates the science stories swirling around us every second.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
Featured Article: 12 Thrilling History Listens to Get Ready for
Oppenheimer
Dubbed the "father of the atomic bomb," J. Robert Oppenheimer was a theoretical physicist who gained notoriety for the role he played in the Manhattan Project and the creation of the very first nuclear weapon. After the atomic bomb was developed, it was deployed by the United States to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These listens provide historical context about the man at the center of Christopher Nolan's biopic.
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Since its formation nearly five billion years ago, our planet has been the sole living world in a vast and silent universe. Now, Earth's isolation is coming to an end. Over the past two decades, astronomers have discovered thousands of "exoplanets" orbiting other stars, including some that could be similar to our own world. Studying those distant planets for signs of life will be crucial to understanding life's intricate mysteries right here on Earth. In a firsthand account of this unfolding revolution, Lee Billings draws on interviews with top researchers.
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Bloated
- By Dr A on 01-09-14
By: Lee Billings
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Sun in a Bottle
- The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking
- By: Charles Seife
- Narrated by: Bill Weideman
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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For the past 50 years, governments and research teams have tried to bottle the sun with lasers, magnets, sound waves, and particle beams, struggling to harness the power of fusion. Again and again, they have failed, disgracing generations of scientists. Throughout this fascinating journey, Charles Seife introduces us to the daring geniuses, villains, and victims of fusion science.
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Focused on the Lone Wolves
- By Robert Goldston on 11-14-08
By: Charles Seife
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What Einstein Didn't Know
- Scientific Answers to Everyday Questions
- By: Robert L. Wolke
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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How does soap know what's dirt? How do magnets work? Why do ice cubes crackle in your glass? And how can you keep them quiet? These are questions that torment us all. Now Robert L. Wolke, professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, provides definitive - and amazingly simple - explanations for the mysteries of everyday life.
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A funny thing happened on the way to a great book
- By Joseph on 10-01-12
By: Robert L. Wolke
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Chernobyl 01:23:40
- The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster
- By: Andrew Leatherbarrow
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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At 01:23:40 on April 26th 1986, Alexander Akimov pressed the emergency shutdown button at Chernobyl's fourth nuclear reactor. It was an act that forced the permanent evacuation of a city, killed thousands, and crippled the Soviet Union. The event spawned decades of conflicting, exaggerated, and inaccurate stories.
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Lost in his own navel
- By Christopher on 10-17-16
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Energy
- A Human History
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. Rhodes looks back on five centuries of progress, through such influential figures as Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, Benjamin Franklin, Herman Melville, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford.
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No more accents, please!
- By Ned Gulley on 08-30-18
By: Richard Rhodes
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No Immediate Danger
- Carbon Ideologies, Volume One
- By: William T. Vollmann
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In his nonfiction, William T. Vollmann has won acclaim as a singular voice tackling some of the most important issues of our age. Now, Vollmann turns to a topic that will define the generations to come - the factors and human actions that have led to global warming. Vollmann begins No Immediate Danger by examining and quantifying the many causes of climate change, from industrial manufacturing and agricultural practices to fossil fuel extraction, economic demand for electric power, and the justifiable yearning of people all over the world to live in comfort.
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Look at the brightside always and die in a dream!
- By Darwin8u on 04-14-19
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The Alchemy of Air
- A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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At the dawn of the 20th century, humanity was facing global disaster. Mass starvation, long predicted for the fast-growing population, was about to become a reality. A call went out to the worlds scientists to find a solution. This is the story of the two enormously gifted, fatally flawed men who found it: the brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and the reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized factories, controlled world markets, and saved millions of lives.
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Great Book Thoroughly Researched
- By Terry A. Gray on 10-21-11
By: Thomas Hager
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Ignition!
- An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants
- By: John Drury Clark, Isaac Asimov - foreward
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Ignition! is the story of the search for a rocket propellant which could be trusted to take man into space. This search was a hazardous enterprise carried out by rival labs who worked against the known laws of nature, with no guarantee of success or safety. John Drury Clark writes with irreverent and eyewitness immediacy about the development of the explosive fuels strong enough to negate the relentless restraints of gravity. The resulting volume is as much a memoir as a work of history, sharing a behind-the-scenes view of an enterprise that eventually took men to the moon.
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Science man lists names of chemicals for 9 hours
- By Adrian on 05-06-19
By: John Drury Clark, and others
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Space Chronicles
- Facing the Ultimate Frontier
- By: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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With his signature wit and thought-provoking insights, Neil deGrasse Tyson - one of our foremost thinkers on all things space - illuminates the past, present, and future of space exploration and brilliantly reminds us why NASA matters now as much as ever. As Tyson reveals, exploring the space frontier can profoundly enrich many aspects of our daily lives, from education systems and the economy to national security and morale.
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The least helpful review of Space Chronicles.
- By Joshua Kring on 06-17-15
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The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
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Beware limitations of the reader
- By JFanson on 01-01-19
By: Richard Rhodes
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Periodic Tales
- A Cultural History of the Elements, From Arsenic to Zinc
- By: Hugh Aldersey-Williams
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Like the alphabet, the calendar, or the zodiac, the periodic table of the chemical elements has a permanent place in our imagination. But aside from the handful of common ones (iron, carbon, copper, gold), the elements themselves remain wrapped in mystery. We do not know what most of them look like, how they exist in nature, how they got their names, or of what use they are to us.
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Interesting but Rambling
- By Carolyn on 08-24-15
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A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
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an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
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When Humans Nearly Vanished
- The Catastrophic Explosion of the Toba Volcano
- By: Donald R. Prothero
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Some 73,000 years ago, the Mount Toba supervolcano in toda's Indonesia erupted, releasing the energy of a million tons of explosives. So much ash and debris was injected into the stratosphere that it partially blocked the sun's radiation and caused global temperatures to drop for a decade. In this book, Donald R. Prothero presents the controversial argument that the Toba catastrophe nearly wiped out the human race, leaving only about a thousand to ten thousand breeding pairs of humans worldwide.
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A very special book
- By Scott Fitzsimmons on 02-02-19
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Uranium
- War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World
- By: Tom Zoellner
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Uranium is a common element in the earth's crust and the only naturally occurring mineral with the power to end all life on the planet. After World War II, it reshaped the global order---whoever could master uranium could master the world. Marie Curie gave us hope that uranium would be a miracle panacea, but the Manhattan Project gave us reason to believe that civilization would end with apocalypse.
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GREAT book, awful narration
- By Carolyn on 03-30-09
By: Tom Zoellner
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The periodic table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, greed, betrayal, and obsession. The fascinating tales in The Disappearing Spoon follow elements on the table as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, conflict, the arts, medicine, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.
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In 2016, with the addition of four final elements - nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson - to make a total of 118 elements, the periodic table was finally complete, rendering any pre-existing books on the subject obsolete. Tim James, the secondary-school science teacher we all wish we'd had, provides an accessible and wonderfully entertaining 'biography of chemistry' that uses stories to explain the positions and patterns of elements in the periodic table. Many popular science titles tend to tell the history of scientific developments, leaving the actual science largely unexplained; James, however, makes use of stories to explain the principles of chemistry within the table, showing its relevance to everyday life.
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The Clockwork Universe is the story of a band of men who lived in a world of dirt and disease but pictured a universe that ran like a perfect machine. A meld of history and science, this book is a group portrait of some of the greatest minds who ever lived as they wrestled with natures most sweeping mysteries. The answers they uncovered still hold the key to how we understand the world.
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Calculus Ergo Modernity
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Napoleon's Buttons is the fascinating account of 17 groups of molecules that have greatly influenced the course of history. These molecules provided the impetus for early exploration, and made possible the voyages of discovery that ensued. The molecules resulted in grand feats of engineering and spurred advances in medicine and law; they determined what we now eat, drink, and wear. A change as small as the position of an atom can lead to enormous alterations in the properties of a substance.
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Unlocking the Hidden History of DNA
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Locked inside the DNA of every species that ever lived are endless stories - about origins, ancestors, fate, and much more. Until recently, these secrets were completely inaccessible. But with the help of new technologies, scientists are now reading the hidden history of DNA, making remarkable discoveries about ourselves and our fellow species. Your gateway to this treasure trove of information is Unlocking the Hidden History of DNA, 12 informative and accessible lectures delivered by New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean.
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Great course
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By: Sam Kean, and others
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Fire in the Belly
- On Being a Man
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Written for both men and women, this groundbreaking book takes the reader on a journey to discover new routes to authentic manhood and create alternatives to definitions of masculinity that no longer work in today's world.
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Terrible and Misandrist
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By: Sam Keen
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Knowing What We Know
- The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
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From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—this is Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom?
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Colorful anecdotes but tiring after a while.
- By reader on 05-03-23
By: Simon Winchester
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The Royal Art of Poison
- Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul
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The story of poison is the story of power. For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns, and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. Servants licked the royal family's spoons, tried on their underpants, and tested their chamber pots. Ironically, royals terrified of poison were unknowingly poisoning themselves daily with their cosmetics, medications, and filthy living conditions.
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Relieved and surprised
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Stuff Matters
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Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paper clip bend? These are the sorts of questions that Mark Miodownik is constantly asking himself. A globally renowned materials scientist, Miodownik has spent his life exploring objects as ordinary as an envelope and as unexpected as concrete cloth, uncovering the fascinating secrets that hold together our physical world.
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Surprisingly good
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What listeners say about Caesar's Last Breath
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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- Grant M.
- 10-01-17
Very enjoyable until the ridiculous conclusion
The great majority of this book is the informative and entertaining popular science writing that Sam Kean is well known for -- minus a little forced humor -- but I will leave it to the many other positive reviews to highlight its strengths. Unfortunately, the final section nearly ruined the entire book for my wife and I, as it treats escape of the human race to another habitable (or terraformable) planet as a realistic option. We may certainly wish to escape from Earth's environment after major loading of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, and the associated positive feedbacks that result in drastic warming, sea-level rise, and the major conflicts that our own military experts are predicting and attempting to prepare for.
Even in the most optimistic scenario, and ultimately dependent far more on faith and luck than science, PERHAPS a very few of us might make it to another habitable planet - but even then, only at truly enormous expense and sacrifice of the rest of the population, not to mention the natural world, to provide the necessary resources and effort over many, many years of preparation. Kean may be correct in his assumption that humans will not change their behavior in time to avoid dangerous climate and environmental change, but escape from Earth is a ridiculous and irresponsible suggestion, and I'm extremely disappointed in the author.
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59 people found this helpful
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- sdp
- 08-11-17
vastly entertaining
Sam makes science fun and accessible via great story telling. You won't regret reading any of his books. They all entertain and inform.
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42 people found this helpful
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- Wayne
- 02-03-18
Review of the history of understanding gases
Caesar's Last Breath is a non-fiction book about gases beginning with those which formed earth but mostly about how humans came to understand gaseous compounds and the various gases in our atmosphere. The is a cleverly and superbly written book of science, especially chemistry written for the non-scientist. Much of it deals with the individuals who pushed science forward. As a scientist I recommend the book especially for teens with interest in science. It is both interesting and fun.
I rate this book 5 stars, but the final 30 minutes of the narration is completely Sam Kean's wild and unhelpful speculation about the future. Caesar's Last Breath would be even better if Kean had dispensed with his uninformed speculation.
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27 people found this helpful
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- James L Roche
- 08-06-17
Fascinating!
Sam Kean intermixed great stories into science and great science into stories. History, Science and future predictions.
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- chemprof
- 09-08-17
super nice listen a lot of history and sci
super nice read, a lot broader than I expected, thought I would be disappointed with science, but lots of cool tidbits
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20 people found this helpful
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- RRS
- 08-09-17
Wonderful
Fascinating, informative and well delivered. I am a huge fan of Sam Kean. All of his works present such a clear and comprehensible explanation to some of the more difficult concepts to understand; be it neurology or the possibility of living on other planets. I highly recommend this book
JS
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- Madelyn McGrath
- 07-27-17
PV=NRT
Always a pleasure to listen to the stories Sam Kean has to say. Even if you've heard some of these stories before Kean has a unique way setting each tale into the broader history of our evolution in thinking. From developing order and understanding chaos, this one is an instant favorite of mine. Thanks
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-26-17
excellent
excellent like his other books, shame that the disappearing spoon isn't available on audible Canada
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- Lori B.
- 09-06-17
Caesar's Last Breath is full of very interesting stories
The depth of research is incredible. Congrats to everyone that participated to produce this audio book.
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- Neuron
- 01-29-18
Superb!
This book is about air. When I first realized this I thought to myself, how interesting can air possibly be? As it turns out air is abundantly interesting. Not in my wildest imagination (ok, maybe in my wildest imagination), did I think that anyone could fathom so many, so interesting stories about such a seemingly mundane thing as air. With its perfect mix of historical anecdotes and well-explained science, this book is a real masterpiece and I would have given it more stars if I could.
The first chapter gives you the story of Caesar’s last breath. Where are the molecules that left Cesar's lungs in his last exhale today? Specifically, what are the chances that in your next breath you will inhale one of these molecules? I vaguely remember having heard this example before, but I still thought that the size of Earth's atmosphere relative to a single breath means that the chance is very very small. But no, on average every other breath we take will contain one or more molecules that left Cesar's lungs in Rome 2000 years ago. This is because simply put, there are a lot of molecules in every single breath. Still a skeptic? I don’t blame you, but let Sam Kean inform you (if you are wondering, yes Kean does do the math).
Subsequent chapters are about different molecules that exist in the air. The privileged reader will meet the comatose nitrogen that really doesn't like to interact with anything else. Despite its passivity, nitrogen in the air helps feed 50% of the world's population since it is crucial for making fertilizer. How this extraction process was first accomplished is a fascinating story. And it is a story that no one tells better than Sam Kean. The reader will also meet nitrogen's counterpart, Oxygen, the madman that reacts powerfully with everything. The fact that organisms have managed to tame this rogue molecule is a miracle (perfect for God of the gaps people). Noble gases and radioactive gases also make prominent appearances. For each air constituent, Kean explains the relevant science and gives you one or a few well-selected anecdotes to hang your new knowledge on. The most hilarious part of the book is when Kean introduces Le Petomane, who was the best-paid artist in France. His trick? Farting like no one else in the history of mankind (do Google this person, you will not regret it (or maybe you will)). Of course, you will also learn what farts are made of and how many fart molecules you inhale each time you take a breath. I know I am repeating myself, but Kean really is one of the very best when it comes to giving life to science.
The writing is clear and accessible but the book does not compromise on scientific details. The book even has a beautiful prosaic ending which is not something I usually associate with or expect from non-fiction books. When writing reviews, I usually feel I must balance praise and critique but in this case, I feel that the book is close to being perfect. Read it! Now!
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