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Culture, history and society

Culture, history and society

Surprising physics that we depend on for existence

27 Apr 2021
Taken from the April 2021 issue of Physics World where it first appeared under the headline "The surprises essential to life".

David Appell reviews Seven Pillars of Science: the Incredible Lightness of Ice, and Other Scientific Surprises by John Gribbin

iceberg in the Arctic sea
Tip of the iceberg The unintuitive lightness of ice is just one of several surprising natural phenomena that Gribbin writes about. (Courtesy: iStock/RomoloTavani)
We humans are not blessed with a reliable intuition for the laws of nature. Many of today’s scient

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David Appell is a science writer living in Keizer, Oregon, US, www.davidappell.com
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