The Secret of Everyday Things

Jean Henri Fabre reveals the wondrous nature of items we use and encounter daily, explaining how such things commonly taken for granted are fascinating and intricate.

Everyday things encountered in nature and at home carry many fascinating properties, from foodstuffs to common creatures to the physics behind light and heat. Simple tools like the needle and thread, or the dyes in clothing, or the usual methods of cookery are revealed as the result of many years of human effort; the chemical a...