Audio only
Stuff Matters
Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made WorldBy Mark MiodownikNarrated by Matthew WatersonLength6h 22m
About this audiobook
A New York Times Bestseller
An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science
Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paper clip bend? Why does any material look and behave the way it does? 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.
In Stuff Matters, Miodownik entertainingly examines the materials he encounters in a typical morning, from the steel in his razor and the graphite in his pencil to the foam in his sneakers and the concrete in a nearby skyscraper. He offers a compendium of the most astounding histories and marvelous scientific breakthroughs in the material world, including:
The imprisoned alchemist who saved himself from execution by creating the first European porcelain.
The hidden gem of the Milky Way, a planet five times the size of Earth, made entirely of diamond.
Graphene, the thinnest, strongest, stiffest material in existence—only a single atom thick—that could be used to make entire buildings sensitive to touch.From the teacup to the jet engine, the silicon chip to the paper clip, the plastic in our appliances to the elastic in our underpants, our lives are overflowing with materials. Full of enthralling tales of the miracles of engineering that permeate our lives, Stuff Matters will make you see stuff in a whole new way.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★★ 5.0 (1)
GenreScience and Nature, History
Length6 hrs 22 mins
Narrated byMatthew Waterson
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJul 16, 2024
LanguageEnglish
More from Mark Miodownik
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m$29 · $0.00
The Collected Works of John MuirJohn Muir96h 8m$2 · $0.00
LiftoffEric Berger9h 4m$29 · $0.00
Distant SkiesMelissa A. Priblo Chapman12h 39m$23
ApolloCharles Murray, Catherine Bly Cox18h 15m$30
The Story of BirdsSteve Brusatte11h 49m$29 · $0.00
Black Earth WisdomLeah Penniman11h 54m$8 · $0.00
Crystals for BeginnersKaren Frazier3h 49m$20
What If? 10th Anniversary EditionRandall Munroe7h 29m$23
Nikola Tesla - Ultimate Collection: 70+ Scientific Works, Lectures & EssaysNikola Tesla48h 43m$2 · $0.00
Total Cat MojoJackson Galaxy10h 13m$23 · $0.00
Earth at NightNational Aeronautics and Space Administration2h 31m$1 · $0.00
My Life Among the UnderdogsTia Torres5h 51m$24 · $0.00
What It Takes to Save a LifeKwane Stewart6h$24 · $0.00
Pastoral SongJames Rebanks8h 35m$26 · $0.00
How Stella Learned to TalkChristina Hunger7h$24 · $0.00
Craig & FredCraig Grossi8h 6m$26 · $0.00
Celebrating BirdsNatalia Rojas, Ana Maria Martinez6h 47m$24 · $0.00
WildingIsabella Tree12h 22m$23
Saving JemimaJulie Zickefoose4h 59m$20 · $0.00
Black AF HistoryMichael Harriot15h 43m$33 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m$46 · $0.00
The Redeemer’s ReturnArthur W. Pink13h 18m$20
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0.00
Frederick Douglass: All 3 Memoirs in One VolumeFrederick Douglass44h 9m$2 · $0.00
I've Been to the MountaintopMartin Luther King48m5 (1)$11 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m$8 · $0.00
The Red RecordIda B. Wells-Barnett2h 9m$2 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m$15
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m$20
You may also like
A New Era of ThoughtCharles Howard Hinton7h 56m$1 · $0.00
1. A desert nightSarah Schofield, Andrew Coombs11m$6 · $0.00
Travels, chiefly on Foot, through several parts of England in 1782, described in Letters to a FriendKarl Philipp Moritz6h 24m$1 · $0.00
The Drawings of Leonardo da VinciC. Lewis Hind, Leonardo da Vinci42m$1 · $0.00
AnthropologyA. L. Kroeber19h 39m$2.30
If You Could Live AnywhereMelody Warnick8h 14m$20 · $0.00
Cheese, Wine, and BreadKatie Quinn11h 40m$29 · $0.00
A History of Video Games in 64 ObjectsWorld Video Game Hall of Fame7h 41m$26 · $0.00
Clarity Through ActionSteve Pavlina17m$4 · $0.00
The Enigma of ArrivalV. S. Naipaul13h 7m$23
The History and Practice of the Art of PhotographyHenry Hunt Snelling4h 21m$1 · $0.00
Science and the Modern World (Summarized Edition)Alfred North Whitehead3h 37m$2
Rough Ways Made SmoothRichard A. Proctor12h 48m$2 · $0.00
The creative city does not existMarianna d'Ovidio6h 45m$8
Change Your MindRJ Spina7h 5m$17
The Complete Works of David HumeDavid Hume214h 17m$2 · $0.00
Hustle from HomeLaura Stack CSP, MBA, Chris Widener, Sharon Lechter, Krish Dhanam, various authors15h 18m$30
New York. Hörbuch auf EnglischMatthias Morgenroth44m$10 · $0.00
From sketch-book and diaryElizabeth Butler4h 24m$2 · $0.00
Game ChangersDave Asprey11h 12m$29 · $0.00