Life's Matrix: A Biography of Water

I picked up this book because I was curious to see how someone could write a 380 page book about water. Ball does so by talking about everything connected with water, the hydrosphere, its chemical nature, biological functions, and rounds off the work with a consideration of some of the more prominent "myths" associated with water: "polywater" and homeopathy. This makes for a mixed brew: different readers will find different chapters more or less interesting according to their interests - I would have preferred a little more on the ecology and a little less on cellular chemistry - but Ball does a good job of making it all readable, informative, and relatively straightforward. ( )

I found this slightly disappointing in that I was hoping for much more of a discussion of the chemistry of water, and instead got a whole lot of unexpected material on issues like the geology of water (which were, however, interesting).

Having complained that the book was not what I expected, it remains true that Philip Ball is a superior pop science author and that this book is entertaining, interesting, and well worth reading. ( )

Biographies of not-people I always find entertaining.