Caesar's Last Breath

Fascinating stories, so insightful, informative, and disarmingly written. It gave this astronaut a new respect for the air around us all, and made me delightfully more aware of each breath I take.

Col. Chris Hadfield, author of An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

Sam Kean has done it again - this time clearly and entertainingly explaining the science of the air around us. He is a gifted storyteller with a knack for finding the magic hidden in the everyday.

Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive

The most fun to be had from nonfiction is a good science book, with a writer of craft who can capture both the excitement and the elegance of science, the incredible fact that this is really how it works. Sam Kean is such a writer and Caesar's Last Breath is such a book. An enormous pleasure to read.

Mark Kurlansky, author of Cod

It’s a helluva read. And it’s a gas.

Tim Radford, The Guardian

Absorbing, entertaining... provocative but compelling... eminently accessible and enjoyable. A real gas - in short!

Robin McKie, Observer

Funny, clever and altogether effervescent... Kean writes superbly about science itself... A joy for any reader

James McConnachie, The Sunday Times

There is no denying the pleasure and indeed the wealth of scientific information to be obtained from reading Caesar’s Last Breath. It will change forever the way I think about breathing.

Financial Times

This vibrant, fact-filled science book makes the chemistry of air riveting

Sunday Times Must Reads

Told with Kean’s trademark combination of goofy wisecracking and an exceptional knack for communicating the principles of science

Wall Street Journal

Kean is the teacher you wish you'd had: genial, companionable and infectiously enthusiastic. This is an entertaining and accessible guide to the mysterious vapour of gases. Popular science at its best.

Simon Humphreys, Mail on Sunday

An altogether excellent read, an invigorating and stylish mixture of chemistry, history and reportage that brings to light many of the untold stories of the air that surrounds and sustains us

Times Literary Supplement

Brims with such fascinating tales of chemical history that it'll change the very way you think about breathing.... Kean crams the book full of wild yarns told with humorously dramatic flair.... The effect is oddly intimate, the way all good storytelling is -- you feel like you're sharing moments of geeky amusement with a particularly hip chemistry teacher

San Francisco Chronicle