When I first realized this I thought to myself, how interesting can air possibly be? As it turns out air is abundantly interesting. Kean may be correct in his assumption that humans will not change their behavior in time to avoid dangerous climate and environmental change, but escape from Earth is a ridiculous and irresponsible suggestion, and I'm extremely disappointed in the author. Even in the most optimistic scenario, and ultimately dependent far more on faith and luck than science, PERHAPS a very few of us might make it to another habitable planet - but even then, only at truly enormous expense and sacrifice of the rest of the population, not to mention the natural world, to provide the necessary resources and effort over many, many years of preparation. We may certainly wish to escape from Earth's environment after major loading of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, and the associated positive feedbacks that result in drastic warming, sea-level rise, and the major conflicts that our own military experts are predicting and attempting to prepare for.
Unfortunately, the final section nearly ruined the entire book for my wife and I, as it treats escape of the human race to another habitable (or terraformable) planet as a realistic option. The great majority of this book is the informative and entertaining popular science writing that Sam Kean is well known for - minus a little forced humor - but I will leave it to the many other positive reviews to highlight its strengths. Very enjoyable until the ridiculous conclusion Lively, witty, and filled with the astounding science of ordinary life, Caesar's Last Breath illuminates the science stories swirling around us every second. Along the way we'll swim with radioactive pigs, witness the most important chemical reactions humans have discovered, and join the crowd at the Moulin Rouge for some of the crudest performance art of all time.
Tracing the origins and ingredients of our atmosphere, Kean reveals how the alchemy of air reshaped our continents, steered human progress, powered revolutions, and continues to influence everything we do. Of the sextillions of molecules entering or leaving your lungs at this moment, some might well bear traces of Cleopatra's perfumes, German mustard gas, particles exhaled by dinosaurs or emitted by atomic bombs, even remnants of stardust from the universe's creation. On the Ides of March, 44 BC, Julius Caesar died of stab wounds on the Senate floor, but the story of his last breath is still unfolding in fact you're probably inhaling some of it now.
With every breath, you literally inhale the history of the world. In Caesar's Last Breath, New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean takes us on a journey through the periodic table, around the globe, and across time to tell the story of the air we breathe, which, it turns out, is also the story of earth and our existence on it. The fascinating science and history of the air we breathe.
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