'I never knew air could be so interesting' Bill Bryson 'A wonderful lesson in how science works' Simon Singh, Daily Telegraph 'A blend of science writing and historical anecdote that is hard to fault ... Walker's account of half a dozen scholars and their inspired hunches, painstaking experiments, wrong turns and dazzling discoveries is like a good detective story' New Statesman 'Spectacular ... Kittinger's fall serves as entree to an amazing tale of the scientific discovery of the atmosphere' Giles Foden, Conde Nast Traveller

Gabrielle Walker has a PhD in chemistry from Cambridge and has taught at both Cambridge and Princeton universities. She is a consultant to New Scientist, contributes frequently to BBC radio and writes for many newspapers and magazines. The author of Snowball Earth and presenter of BBC Radio 4's 'Planet Earth Under Threat', she lives in London and France.