We not only live in the air, we live because of it. At ground level air transforms miraculously; it wraps our planet in a blanket of warmth, while the outer layer of our atmosphere soaks up violent flares from the sun. In this fascinating celebration of the Earth's fragile atmosphere, Gabrielle Walker traces a journey of groundbreaking scientific discovery from the first experiments in the Renaissance to recent findings in space.

Galileo's Daughter meets The Cloudspotter's Guide Author is a regular contributor to Radio 4 and New Scientist Gabrielle's next book, The Hot Topic, tackles climate change and will raise her profile further

About the Author
Gabrielle Walker has a PhD in chemistry from Cambridge and has taught at both Cambridge and Princeton universities. She is a consultant to New Scientist, contributes frequently to BBC radio and writes for many newspapers and magazines. The author of Snowball Earth and presenter of BBC Radio 4's 'Planet Earth Under Threat', she lives in London and France.

Reviews
'I never knew air could be so interesting' Bill Bryson 'A wonderful lesson in how science works' Simon Singh, Daily Telegraph 'A blend of science writing and historical anecdote that is hard to fault ... Walker's account of half a dozen scholars and their inspired hunches, painstaking experiments, wrong turns and dazzling discoveries is like a good detective story' New Statesman 'Spectacular ... Kittinger's fall serves as entree to an amazing tale of the scientific discovery of the atmosphere' Giles Foden, Conde Nast Traveller



Book Information
ISBN 9780747592907
Author Gabrielle Walker
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 20mm