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3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent popular science, 4 April 2005
This book represents all that I like about popular science. It takes a subject which is all around us- foam- and tells us a lot more about it: not just the common varieties of foam like shaving foam, whipped cream and fire extinguishers, but foam-like properties of matter at the subatomic level, and even on the cosmic scale. For me the best chapter is the first, which deals with the basics of foam behaviour and geometry (simple rules, derived by observation, have since been proven to be correct). This chapter is simply dazzling, and since having read it I closely examine everything foamlike around me. Thereafter the author takes us through edible foams (including bread, beer, cappucino, and so on); through practical foams (including aerogel, a glass foam with extraordinary properties); through biological foams, global foams, and finally to cosmic foams (which is where the book loses a little cohesion). Despite this, there are a few niggles: I counted about one factual error per chapter. These errors happen to fall within my own area of experience. However, the book is very broad in scope, and I therefore wonder what other errors there might be that I didn't spot. Small errors aside, this book is fascinating and informative and well worth a read.
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by Denis Weaire
