Water - a compound of astonishing complexity - one of life's three essentials, 75% of each human is composed of it. Air - the stuff of ozone, oxygen radicals, zephyrs and hurricanes. Fire - the chemical reaction that set us on the road to civilisation, used by the medieval church to burn witches and exploited by the Chinese with the momentous invention of gunpowder. And Earth, the element of mountains, rocks and fertile soil and the sticky clay template onto which the first DNA presursors assembled themselves into linked chains.

Though the Greek four have long since been displaced from modern chemistry, they continue to resonate in human experience and imagination. Our understanding of the physical world - and our whole great edifice of modern science - grows from what we first and best perceive: the experience of water, air, fire and earth.

From atomic theory to oxygen bars from supervolcanos to the anatomy of a candle, Four Elements is a witty and multifaceted journey of discovery through the elements that shape our lives.