The flight is described through the language of molecules, heartbeats and ocean waves. My aim is to unlock the mysterious properties of liquids and how we have come to rely on them. The flight takes us over the volcanos of Iceland, the frozen expanse of Greenland, the lakes dotted around Hudson Bay, and then south to the coastline of the Pacific Ocean. This is a big enough canvas to discuss liquids from the scale of oceans down to droplets in the clouds, while also examining the curious liquid crystals in the onboard entertainment system, the beverages served by the airline stewards, and of course the aviation fuel that keeps a plane in the stratosphere. (Location 251)
Dogs also get drunk if they drink alcohol, which is why there is a growing market for non-alcoholic wine designed specifically for pets to consume at festive occasions. (Location 551)
Which makes you wonder why the dangers of intoxication are not mentioned in the pre-flight safety briefing: surely a drunk person is less safe in an emergency, and less able to make good decisions that affect others? But then, that assumes that the briefing is really about safety, which, as already mentioned, I don’t believe it is. (Location 593)
As useful as liquid helium is, it’s also quite unruly. It will operate successfully to cool MRI machines to –269ºC, but cool it down a few more degrees to –272ºC, and it enters what we call a superfluid state. In this state, all the atoms in the liquid occupy a single quantum state, which is to say that all of the billions and billions of helium molecules act as if they are a single molecule, giving the liquid odd powers – it has no viscosity for instance, and will spontaneously flow up out of a container. It will even be able to flow through solid materials, finding its way through the object’s atomic-sized defects without any resistance. (Location 3002)
