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.
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 20th 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.
'A delightful story of an overlooked and underappreciated science and the scientists who made it. The writing never falters.' - Mark Buchanan, author of Nexus
'Haw's excellent descriptions ensure that concepts normally encountered only at degree level are just part of a riveting story'. -Chemistry World
'An accessible and racy account...there is something for everyone in this highly enjoyable little book.' - Nature
'It's a phenomenal book. It's slender and makes for an easy read, yet still it explains fundamental concepts well, in terms of the experiments that led to their discovery. There's a reason we make biology students take physics and chemistry, and it's because their essential ideas are all tightly interlinked — and this book makes a good case that viewing molecules as inhabitants of that Middle World is a powerfully unifying perspective.'
PZ Myers, Pharyngula Blog (www.scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/)
Tiny Things That Can't Stand Still
An Accidental Discovery
Gardens of Delight, Orchards of Determinism
Theories of Everything... and Rice Pudding
Statistics and Two Giant Intellects
A Question of Reality
The Importance of Being Einstein
Rubber Balls
Good Dice, Bad Dice
Nanomachines, Nanopromise and Nanothreat
Living Roots
The Cradle of Creation
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, France. He has written Physics and Chemistry features for Nature and Physics World, published numerous short stories and penned three novels.
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.
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 20th 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.
Reviews
'A delightful story of an overlooked and underappreciated science and the scientists who made it. The writing never falters.' - Mark Buchanan, author of Nexus
'Haw's excellent descriptions ensure that concepts normally encountered only at degree level are just part of a riveting story'. -Chemistry World
'An accessible and racy account...there is something for everyone in this highly enjoyable little book.' - Nature
'It's a phenomenal book. It's slender and makes for an easy read, yet still it explains fundamental concepts well, in terms of the experiments that led to their discovery. There's a reason we make biology students take physics and chemistry, and it's because their essential ideas are all tightly interlinked — and this book makes a good case that viewing molecules as inhabitants of that Middle World is a powerfully unifying perspective.'
PZ Myers, Pharyngula Blog (www.scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/)
Contents
Tiny Things That Can't Stand Still
An Accidental Discovery
Gardens of Delight, Orchards of Determinism
Theories of Everything... and Rice Pudding
Statistics and Two Giant Intellects
A Question of Reality
The Importance of Being Einstein
Rubber Balls
Good Dice, Bad Dice
Nanomachines, Nanopromise and Nanothreat
Living Roots
The Cradle of Creation
Authors
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, France. He has written Physics and Chemistry features for Nature and Physics World, published numerous short stories and penned three novels.
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