The Elements We Live By

What makes this book the perfect popular science title is the way Royne places new knowledge in a greater context and in ongoing debates on society and our common future. It is not just a well-written story about the elements, but a book about being human in the world today.

An excellent book about the elements … Physicist Anja Royne has achieved the feat of producing a popular science heavyweight that wears its knowledge lightly. - Aftenposten

Popular science par excellence … An extremely good book that deals with the big social challenges by starting out with the small … Many fields of study probably offer a more promising starting point than the building blocks that form all matter, but Royne brings gold, copper, calcium and carbon alive in a way that makes her book exciting, entertaining, and - not least - enlightening.

[T]his lovely book. An enjoyable sweep through topics ranging from respiration to space exploration -solid science presented in an engagingly human way.