Science and Inquiry discussion

For May 2023, we will be reading Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives by Mark Miodownik.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

I’m a few chapters in, and I’ve found each chapter more interesting than the previous. The chapter on glues had some surprising examples of how we use adhesives—the materials used (I hadn’t ever thought of rubber itself as an adhesive), the uses to which we put them (never would have thought that airplane wings were glued together), and their long history in human society (ancient Egyptians had plywood?).

I finished this book yesterday and I also found the later chapters more interesting. What sticks out in my mind is cloud seeding (Ch 11) to create water droplets and thus rain. Does anyone else have any conspiracy theorists in their family? If so, you have heard the term "seeding the clouds" thrown about. I'm just happy to finally understand what that actually means and how it can be used for good as was the case when we needed to remove radioactive particles from the atmosphere after the Chernobyl incident.

This quote from the “Cloudy” chapter made me pause for a moment: “a single molecule can’t just turn back into liquid in midair; to form a tiny droplet of water requires some coordination—several H2O molecules all have to come together to become a single droplet.”

I was just a bit caught up with the realization that when we talk about the phase of some substance—calling it a liquid, for instance—we’re not really talking about the elements/molecules themselves, but rather about the relationship they have to each other. Calling something a liquid tells you about how its molecules interact, much more than telling you what it is. It’s a pretty basic realization, but it did kind of strike me.

spoko wrote: "Calling something a liquid tells you about how its molecules interact, much more than telling you what it is."

I love that realization and you could take it even further. Calling something a liquid tells you about how its molecules interact at that moment in time, at a particular temperature, and under particular conditions. I loved the cloudy chapter. I never thought so hard about rain.

I read this book last month after it won the May vote. It was OK, probably not something I would've picked up otherwise. I listened to the audiobook version, and honestly what stuck with me most was the author's probably fictionalized account of his airplane ride where he endlessly annoyed his seatmate while being fascinated by various liquids. I would've been annoyed if I were the seatmate too.