Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World Paperback – International Edition, 6 Mar. 2014

I only became aware of this book from the bibliography of the excellent book ‘Material World’ by Ed Conway, which is reviewed elsewhere. Whilst ‘Stuff Matters’ has only half the number of pages, the content is equally interesting and essentially the thoughts of a materials scientist prompted by the items surrounding him while taking a tea break on a roof patio on London.The author explores the sources, properties and uses of concrete, paper, steel, ceramics, glass and even chocolate amongst other things. The technical aspects, are interleaved with personal insights and experiences which adds to the readability of a book requiring no prior knowledge of the subject matter. For light relief, the chapter dealing with plastics is in the form of an imaginative screen-play augmented with factual notes on development of the material. Overall, a very interesting and easy read which may prompt readers to consider the materials encountered during their daily lives rather than just taking them for granted.

I watched the accompanying series when it came out a few years ago and I found the programs engaging and highly interesting. Then I spotted this book and figured I'd get a more in depth look as its a book and not constrained by the time allowed for a TV program.But, you don't. If you've seen the program then you've pretty much read the book.This is not to say the book is bad at all because its not. Its well written, covers a lot of ground and the subjects covered could be dry and boring but they are not due to the enthusiasm of the author.The other thing I note - which of course is self evident if you are reading a book about technology - is that already some stuff is out of date or nearly so. Particularly - and rather prophetically - the author takes us through some of the science of replacement body parts in particular joint replacements. He points out that the new all titanium joints may well last as long as the human they are fitted to and therefore a real bonus over the joints with polypropylene surfaces - but that no-one is sure what the effects of titanium against titanium with particle wear occurring. Well, recently its become clear that these all titanium joints have caused some serious medical issues with the wear causing metals entering the body.So, I'd recommend this book if you have not seen the series. But, I'm writing this in 2018 - six years after it was written and already its beginning to show its age.

Whether you are a materials aficionado, or have no previous knowledge of materials science and are just interested in what all our 'stuff' is actually manufactured from, this excellent book deserves a place on your shelf.Miodownik is an accomplished materials engineer, but moreover he is a man whose passion for his craft is clearly evident in his writing - there are fewer things more satisfying to read than this.This book offers a fascinating insight into some of the materials of our modern world for everyone. There are no headache inducing formulae here, just scientific principles and some well thought out analogies. It's not just a long tribute to steel or aluminium, either (although that magnificent material steel does get its deserved chapter). You'll learn just why chocolate is so amazing to eat, and how scientists used exotic gels to capture space dust.My engineering background didn't stop me finding this book hugely enjoyable. What it covered that I already knew, I was happy to learn again from Miodownik - his writing style is elegant, succinct and makes this book a page turner.Recommend to all who want to know more about what makes up our man-made world. You won't look at your kitchen in the same way again. For me, it is second to J.E Gordon's books, but only just. First class writing.

I read this book in one sitting. 'Interesting' is the best way to describe it. Things I haven't really thought about before were brought to life and you begin to look at things in different ways. I know 'bone china' has the word bone in it, but I'd never thought about it properly. I didn't know why, what the benefit was, or indeed that it actually contained bone. So I feel a bit thick about it now, but that's the point...it makes you think about things that perhaps you haven't before.The narrative is informal and interesting, humorous in parts, and provides an insight into materials that can definitely be appreciated by the lay person. The author uses personal experiences, such as a stabbing, broken leg etc, to bring interest to different materials and also to show just how damn unlucky he's been at times! He definitely has a fetish about chocolate, anyone that has investigated chocolate as a material in such detail without consideration to profit has got to be at least on the edge of a 'problem'.It's nice to consider graphene, carbon nano tubes etc in such simplistic terms and understand what their true importance is and I look forward to a go on a space elevator in the future, when one or two small technicalities have been ironed out!A good read and a book that I'm sure I'll read again someday.

This book is a masterclass in taking a potentially extremely dry subject (molecular structure) and wrapping it in personal experience (blocked toilets, car crash) to present a narrative and make it interesting. It very nearly succeeds and would be worth 4.5 if I could give that but not quite a 5 as it does lapse at odd moments into the dry science which started to become repetitive.I think a slight drawback - which is more personal than anything to do with the author - is that in one chapter the tale draws you into the hypnosis that resulted in a car crash. As I spend far too much of my life commuting on the M6 and recently saw such an accident it worked a bit like salt in the wound and spoilt my enjoyment.A very good book and well written, cleverly done