Middle World: The Restless Heart of Matter and Life
by Mark Haw
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Reviews
“Fast-paced, witty — with vignettes of the great minds who flung science into the modern era.” American Scientist
“An accessible and racy account — there is something for everyone in this highly enjoyable little book.” Nature
“Haw's excellent descriptions ensure that concepts normally encountered only at degree level are just part of a riveting story”Chemistry World
“A delightful story of an overlooked and underappreciated science and the scientists who made it. Haw weaves together science history with modern research into a colourful picture of the noisy, chaotic realm in which biology finds its mechanical foundation. The writing never falters — a fine balance between instructive metaphor, accurate detail, and amusing anecdote.” Mark Buchanan, author of Nexus
“Mark Haw is to be congratulated on this remarkable book. It opens up a treasure chest of forgotten science that has shaped life on Earth and which is going to play a major role this century.” Dr John Emsley, writer, broadcaster, and author of Vanity, Vitality and Virility, and Elements of Murder
Description
Between the microscopic world of quarks and atoms, and the macroscopic one of pebbles, planets, and galaxies there is another world, strangely neglected by science since Isaac Newton. It is inhabited by pollen, DNA and viruses — not to mention globules of paint, shampoo, milk and chocolate. Its tiny denizens have one thing in common: they cannot keep still.
Now physicist Mark Haw tells the pacy story of how scientists finally saw the restless middle world 200 years ago, having ignored it for so long; how, at the beginning of the 20 th century, it spectacularly answered Einstein’s most basic question about the nature of matter. And how we then ignored it again until the past decade or so. Finally Haw reveals that today understanding the weird, jiggling ‘mesoscale’ has become central to nanotechnology, medicine and working out the origins of life.
Author Biography
Dr Mark Haw is a materials scientist at the University of Nottingham, UK, having spent a decade researching Brownian motion at the University of Edinburgh and the Ecole des Mines in France. Mark has written physics and chemistry features for Nature and Physics World, published numerous short stories and penned three novels.