Life of Pee: The Story of How Urine Got Everywhere

A frank and humorous encyclopedic history of the forgotten life of urine and its many uses in society.

Alchemists sought gold in it. David Bowie refrigerated it to ward off evil. In the trenches of Ypres soldiers used it as a gas mask, whereas modern-day terrorists add it to home-made explosives. All the Fullers, Tuckers and Walkers in the phonebook owe their names to it, and in 1969 four bags for storing it were left on the surface of the moon.

Bought and sold, traded and transported, eve...