A few years ago I came across a book called Stuff Matters by British materials scientist Mark Miodownik. It quickly became a favorite and also a default present: If you were on my birthday / holiday gift list that year, that's what you got. It went on to win several awards, so I was far from alone in being mesmerized by Miodownik's storytelling. Now he's starring in BBC documentaries. "Super Elements" are magical. Neodymium. Rhenium. Lithium. Helium. Yumium. Ok, I made up the last one. But they really are all rather delicious, if not in culinary sense than in the fact that we live on a planet that has them. How cool is that?
