Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives

Liquid Rules explores the different liquids that play a role in our lives through a "flight" framing. The author is flying across the ocean to San Francisco. During the flight he observerse the many liquids involved and goes into details about them. The oceans below and the clouds above are the natural liquids involved. The plane is held together with liquid adhesives. The history of adhesives and combination of materials has evolved to the strong, but light airplanes.

The passengers on the airplane are served various beverages. Coffee, tea and wine all have long histories with many unique variations. The way the liquids interact cause different experiences. We don't just "taste" them, we experience them. The "wrong" color of a beverage can significantly impact our enjoyment of the beverage. The experience also changes based on how it is prepared and where it is served. (Thus airplane tea can be exceptionally bad.)

The plane is air-conditioned by way of liquids. CFCs seemed perfect - until they were found to be very bad. Liquid soap is a non-newtonian fluid that has taken the world by storm. The ball point pen is a complex instrument that allows fluid ink to be used for writing - and seems to last forever. It has become so common that it is a largely "non-owned" item.

The author's flight makes it through the fog and turbulence to land in San Francisco. He makes makes a bee-line to the bathroom at his hotel to experience a needed relief of bodily fluids to the fluid plumbing system. (There were also earlier discussion of our relationship of disgust with some bodily fluids.) He finally goes to the conference and noticed the woman that sat next to him was one of the speakers. If only he had spoken to her about her technical research instead of internalizing the details of the fluids around him...