
It's a Gas
The Sublime and Elusive Elements That Expand Our World
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Narrated by:
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Daniel Weyman
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By:
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Mark Miodownik
About this listen
The New York Times bestselling author of Stuff Matters presents a rollicking guided tour of the secret lives of gases: the magnificent, strange, and fascinating substances that shape our world.
Gases are all around us—they fill our lungs, power our movement, create stars, and warm our atmosphere. Often invisible and sometimes odorless, these ubiquitous substances are also the least understood materials in our world, and always have been.
It wasn’t long ago that gases were seen as the work of ancient spirits: the sudden closing of a door after a change in airflow signaled a ghost’s presence. Scientists and engineers have struggled with their own gaseous demons. The development of high-pressure steam power in the eighteenth century literally blew away some researchers, ushering in a new era for both safety regulations and mass transit. And carbon dioxide, that noxious by-product of fossil fuel consumption, gave rise to modern civilization. Its warming properties known for centuries, it now spells ruin for our fragile atmosphere.
In It’s a Gas, bestselling materials scientist Mark Miodownik chronicles twelve gases and technologies that shaped human history. From hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and neon to laughing gas, steam, and even wind, the story of gases is the story of the space where science and belief collide, and of the elusive limits of human understanding.
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On the Origin of Time
- Stephen Hawking's Final Theory
- By: Thomas Hertog
- Narrated by: Ethan Kelly
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Perhaps the biggest question Stephen Hawking tried to answer in his extraordinary life was how the universe could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life. In order to solve this mystery, Hawking studied the big bang origin of the universe, but his early work ran into a crisis when the math predicted many big bangs producing a multiverse—countless different universes, most of which would be far too bizarre to harbor life.
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1960 ’s to 1980’s Re-Hash of History
- By Ron A. Parsons on 11-13-23
By: Thomas Hertog
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Headwaters
- The Adventures, Obsession and Evolution of a Fly Fisherman (Patagonia)
- By: Dylan Tomine, John Larison - foreward
- Narrated by: Dylan Tomine
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Dylan Tomine takes us to the far reaches of the planet in search of fish and adventure, with keen insight, a strong stomach, and plenty of laughs along the way. Closer to home, he wades deeper into his beloved steelhead rivers of the Pacific Northwest and the politics of saving them. Tomine celebrates the joy - and pain - of exploration, fatherhood, and the comforts of home waters from a vantage point well off the beaten path. Headwaters traces the evolution of a lifelong angler’s priorities from fishing to the survival of the fish themselves.
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Because fishing is about more than catching fish
- By Paul O. on 04-12-25
By: Dylan Tomine, and others
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The Embarrassment of Riches
- An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age
- By: Simon Schama
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 20 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Simon Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence, and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama recreates in precise detail a nation's mental state. He tells of bloody uprisings and beached whales, of the cult of hygiene and the plague of tobacco, of thrifty housewives and profligate tulip-speculators.
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Great!
- By Noe on 12-05-24
By: Simon Schama
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The Experience Machine
- How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality
- By: Andy Clark
- Narrated by: Andy Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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For as long as we’ve studied human cognition, we’ve believed that our senses give us direct access to the world. What we see is what’s really there—or so the thinking goes. But new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology have turned this assumption on its head. What if rather than perceiving reality passively, your mind actively predicts it?
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About halfway through, it became propaganda
- By Jesse Helton on 08-13-23
By: Andy Clark
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Regenesis
- Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet
- By: George Monbiot
- Narrated by: George Monbiot
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Farming is the world's greatest cause of environmental destruction - and the one we are least prepared to talk about. We criticize urban sprawl, but farming sprawls across 30 times as much land. We have ploughed, fenced and grazed great tracts of the planet, felling forests, killing wildlife, and poisoning rivers and oceans to feed ourselves. Yet millions still go hungry.
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Biased, ignores science
- By Soil Enthusiast on 04-25-23
By: George Monbiot
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Liquid Rules
- The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives
- By: Mark Miodownik
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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We all know that without water we couldn't survive, and that sometimes a cup of coffee or a glass of wine feels just as vital. But do we really understand how much we rely on liquids, or the destructive power they hold? Set over the course of a flight from London to San Francisco, Liquid Rules offers listeners a fascinating tour of these formless substances, told through the language of molecules, droplets, heartbeats, and ocean waves.
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Interesting book!
- By Wayne on 08-04-19
By: Mark Miodownik
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Sounds Wild and Broken
- Sonic Marvels, Evolution's Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction
- By: David George Haskell
- Narrated by: Steven Jay Cohen, David George Haskell
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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We live on a planet alive with song, music, and speech. David Haskell explores how these wonders came to be. In rain forests shimmering with insect sound and swamps pulsing with frog calls we learn about evolution’s creative powers. From birds in the Rocky Mountains and on the streets of Paris, we discover how animals learn their songs and adapt to new environments. Below the waves, we hear our kinship to beings as different as snapping shrimp, toadfish, and whales.
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A poet-philosopher-scientist-sage for the ages!
- By S. Kalita on 03-27-22
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The Blazing World
- A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689
- By: Jonathan Healey
- Narrated by: Oliver Hembrough
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The seventeenth century was a revolutionary age for the English. It started as they suddenly found themselves ruled by a Scotsman, and it ended in the shadow of an invasion by the Dutch. Under James I, England suffered terrorism and witch panics. Under his son Charles, state and society collapsed into civil war, to be followed by an army coup and regicide. For a short time—for the only time in history—England was a republic. There were bitter struggles over faith and Parliament asserted itself like never before. There were no boundaries to politics.
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Been looking for this book for a long time
- By cmurrell on 07-30-23
By: Jonathan Healey
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What an Owl Knows
- The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds
- By: Jennifer Ackerman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ackerman
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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For millennia, owls have captivated and intrigued us. Our fascination with these mysterious birds was first documented more than thirty thousand years ago in the Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France. With their forward gaze and quiet flight, owls are often a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, and foresight. But what does an owl really know? And what do we really know about owls? Jennifer Ackerman illuminates the rich biology and natural history of these birds and reveals remarkable new scientific discoveries about their brains and behavior.
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The dedication and fierce commitment of the author
- By Michael G. T. Thompson on 12-17-24
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Into Unknown Skies
- An Unlikely Team, a Daring Race, and the First Flight around the World
- By: David K. Randall
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Now on the race’s centennial, award-winning author David K. Randall tells the story of this riveting, long-forgotten race. Through larger-than-life characters, treacherous landings, disease, and ultimately triumph, Into Unknown Skies demonstrates how one race returned America to aviation greatness. A story of underdog teammates, bold exploration, and American ingenuity, Into Unknown Skies is an untold adventure tale showing the power of flight to bring the world together.
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Ok.
- By Anonymous User on 03-09-25
By: David K. Randall
What listeners say about It's a Gas
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Zach Brunson
- 10-15-24
A Nice Addition to the Other Books
Although it's difficult to beat the first book in this series ('Stuff Matters'), the second book ('Liquid Rules') came close. This book is easily the weakest in the series, but is still a decent addition to complete the trilogy.
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- John Mckenzie
- 01-09-25
Pretty good
He goes down a lot of rabbit holes, but they're always interesting. not always about gas
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- Maestro F
- 02-17-25
Thought provoking and solution oriented
Another accessible yet extremely informative work by this author, weaving scientific principles and feats of engineering into interesting narratives. “It’s a Gas” is especially relevant because it explains how humanity got to where it is now and how we can work together to shift toward the greater sustainability that must be achieved for the survival of our species.
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- FocusOnWildlife
- 10-03-24
too short, leaves you wanting more!
great book, great information and wonderful narratives to explain the significance of the gases and how they are used or how they were discovered. I enjoyed all three of the author's books.
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- Jacob Brenner
- 09-26-24
Beautifully written account of the science of gases and how they shaped the development of civilization
Not quite as much scientific explanation as his prior 2 books, but compensated by adding a personal touch (stories about his own inner turmoil and wonder) and a much grander vision of the arc of civilization and the role technology played.
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- Victor Arnez
- 11-04-24
The narrator
I was very disappointed at the narration. It changed the wonderful atmosphere present in the first and second books. So disappointed 🫤
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