BOOK SCIENCE Solo Adventure Through Firmament by Simon Clark
In this episode of Book Science, I dive into Firmament: The Hidden Science of Weather, Climate Change, and the Air That Surrounds Us by Simon Clark. It’s a beautifully written, surprisingly compact book that unpacks the atmosphere we live in—something so ever-present and invisible that we often forget it exists at all. Clark brings both expertise and charisma to the subject: he’s a UK-based science communicator with a PhD in atmospheric physics and a popular YouTube channel. His book explores foundational concepts in atmospheric science, from Boyle’s Law to global wind patterns, and weaves in the long arc of scientific discovery—from ancient meteo-astronomers to modern climatologists. It’s the kind of book that doesn’t just explain the science but tells the story of how we came to understand it, bringing in the people, experiments, and moments of insight that shaped our knowledge of the air.