Stuff Matters – Mark Miodownik

This is a book about manufactured materials, framed around a picture of the author drinking tea on his patio in London, with a view of the Shard in the background. It’s a really great way to a frame a book – you get an incredible number of materials out of that picture, from concrete to porcelain to chocolate.

I think I liked the chocolate section the best. I would never have thought of it as an engineered substance, but when you step back a minute and think about it – it is. It’s been engineered over time to turn into hot chocolate in our mouths, and most of us could never conceive of it in a different way.