What do you think?
Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces
An exploration of the amazing world of surface science from the author of Science and the City.
In Sticky, physicist Laurie Winkless brings the amazing world of surface science to the popular science market for the first time. Atoms and molecules like to stick together--take friction, for example. This force keeps our cars on the road, trains on the tracks and our feet on the ground; similarly, anything moving through water or air encounters drag, a force caused by the viscous nature of fluids. In other words, there's a lot of stickiness going on, all the time. But what do we actually know about the physics of stickiness? What's really going on? How has nature evolved to make use of it, and what technological advances has it enabled the human race to create?
Using her characteristic fun and relaxed tone, Laurie Winkless introduces readers to the glues, adhesives and textures that rule and improve stickiness to give plants and animals an advantage, as well as uncovering the physics behind our sense of touch. Sticky also shows how our understanding of slipperiness opened the door to high-speed flight and space travel, and asks why friction and other surface interactions can cause machinery to literally grind to a halt.
This is fundamentally a materials science book, but it touches on topics as broad as medicine, robotics and geology. And, as we'll discover, there are still many great mysteries. By exploring the tiniest of interactions, Laurie Winkless shows how civilization owes a great deal to our knowledge of the science of stickiness.
In Sticky, physicist Laurie Winkless brings the amazing world of surface science to the popular science market for the first time. Atoms and molecules like to stick together--take friction, for example. This force keeps our cars on the road, trains on the tracks and our feet on the ground; similarly, anything moving through water or air encounters drag, a force caused by the viscous nature of fluids. In other words, there's a lot of stickiness going on, all the time. But what do we actually know about the physics of stickiness? What's really going on? How has nature evolved to make use of it, and what technological advances has it enabled the human race to create?
Using her characteristic fun and relaxed tone, Laurie Winkless introduces readers to the glues, adhesives and textures that rule and improve stickiness to give plants and animals an advantage, as well as uncovering the physics behind our sense of touch. Sticky also shows how our understanding of slipperiness opened the door to high-speed flight and space travel, and asks why friction and other surface interactions can cause machinery to literally grind to a halt.
This is fundamentally a materials science book, but it touches on topics as broad as medicine, robotics and geology. And, as we'll discover, there are still many great mysteries. By exploring the tiniest of interactions, Laurie Winkless shows how civilization owes a great deal to our knowledge of the science of stickiness.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
December 4, 2021
Despite the shallow cover and title, this is a very serious book. However, it's not exactly related strictly to stickiness, as it is a book about surfaces and friction between them; more exactly, about tribology*, a word which I only now learned about.
The topics vary wildly, and up until 35% it seemed like the written version of How it's made, a documentary I love. We learn about paints, from ancient times till nowadays, how Superglue was discovered by mistake, the history of Post-It Notes, and what exactly Teflon is and what are its properties.
The part about Geckos was insanely interesting. Its hierarchical adhesive system is fantastic; with a weight between 200 and 400 g, in theory, it could support a mass of 133 kg. Such a small and complex being!
We also get insights on swimming suits, especially those used in international competition - who would have thought about the science and development behind?
Tires in F1 are not forgotten, also how was possible for an aircraft to speed past the sound barrier despite the enourmous forces exerted by the air.
Earthquakes, how tectonic plates slide, ice and its properties, skating, how glaciers slide into the water, how fingerprints behave in contact to other surfaces - all are here. The only thing I didn't enjoy was that the author divagated too much on these later topics, lots of pages filled with info dump.
But overall, it's a very good book, spiced up here and there with bits of trivia, both funny and interesting. If all would have been written like the first third, it would have been a 5 stars reading, hands down.
* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribo...
>>> ARC received thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ), Bloomsbury Sigma via NetGalley <<<
The topics vary wildly, and up until 35% it seemed like the written version of How it's made, a documentary I love. We learn about paints, from ancient times till nowadays, how Superglue was discovered by mistake, the history of Post-It Notes, and what exactly Teflon is and what are its properties.
The part about Geckos was insanely interesting. Its hierarchical adhesive system is fantastic; with a weight between 200 and 400 g, in theory, it could support a mass of 133 kg. Such a small and complex being!
We also get insights on swimming suits, especially those used in international competition - who would have thought about the science and development behind?
Tires in F1 are not forgotten, also how was possible for an aircraft to speed past the sound barrier despite the enourmous forces exerted by the air.
Earthquakes, how tectonic plates slide, ice and its properties, skating, how glaciers slide into the water, how fingerprints behave in contact to other surfaces - all are here. The only thing I didn't enjoy was that the author divagated too much on these later topics, lots of pages filled with info dump.
But overall, it's a very good book, spiced up here and there with bits of trivia, both funny and interesting. If all would have been written like the first third, it would have been a 5 stars reading, hands down.
* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribo...
>>> ARC received thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ), Bloomsbury Sigma via NetGalley <<<
November 13, 2021
There has been a suggestion doing the rounds that if you don't get into a book after the first few pages, you should give it up - because life's too short. If I'd followed this suggestion, I wouldn't have discovered what a brilliant book Sticky is. I'll get back to that, but it's worth saying first why Laurie Winkless's book on what makes things sticky, produces friction and grip - or for that matter lubricates - is so good.
Without doubt, Winkless is great at bringing storytelling to her writing. She frames her information well with interviews, visits to places and her personal experiences. But of itself, that isn't enough. The reason, for example, I was captivated by her section on the remarkable (though oddly, given the book's title, entirely non-sticky) adhesive qualities of the gecko's foot was really about the way that Winkless takes us through the different viewpoints on how the foot's adhesion works. We get plenty of science and also a touch of controversy. I'd read plenty of books before that made reference to geckos' feet - but I got far more from this book than I ever have before.
Another example of a section that totally surprised and delighted me was one covering curling (the obscure winter sport, not the business of a hairdresser). I have no interest in any sport - yet what it's possible to do with curling stones, and how the ice is being manipulated by both the bottom of the stone and the broom was totally fascinating. Again, part of the appeal was that the science wasn't cut and dried. We got to witness a real, fierce if friendly, scientific to-and-fro between two opposing theories (neither of which has yet to come out on top).
I had already read a good, but ultimately too detailed, book on adhesives (Steve Abbott's Sticking Together) before, and Winkless covers these in passing, but there is a far wider coverage here. (Amusingly, given the cover, one thing that isn't covered is chewing gum.) We get into the hydrodynamic properties of swim suits (and sharks), air resistance, all sorts of oddities of ice (including a new view on that old point about skates not melting ice due to pressure), tyres, earthquakes, gauge blocks (I'd never heard of these, but now want some) and more. I won't deny that, as is often the case with material science or geology books, just occasionally the same factors came back a touch too often, but the range of topics was sufficient to revive the interest very quickly.
It's also the kind of book where you discover lots of really interesting snippets of information. For example, I hadn’t realised that the moment magnitude scale used to describe the strength of earthquakes (the Richter scale hasn't been used for decades, despite constant references in the media) doesn’t take into account the depth at which the quake occurs. So, for instance, Winkless describes experiencing a devastating-sounding magnitude 6.2 quake (she lives in New Zealand) but all it did was roll some pencils off her desk.
So what was the problem at the beginning? It was Winkless's journalistic strength coming back to bite her. There is sometimes so much focus on the interviewees that it focused on their interests too tightly, getting in the way of the science. A later example of this was in the chapter on tyres - Winkless hangs this on Formula 1. She talks to F1 people and as a result there is far too much about F1 tyres and circumstances for anyone who doesn't care about the sport and would rather the focus was on the tyres normal people, like the readers, use. That opening issue that nearly put me off was a really interesting unknown - how ancient cave art pigments manage to stick so well to stone - that was almost entirely hidden with pages that had nothing to do with stickiness or science, just the interests of her interviewees.
Overall, though, this was not a problem, as the excellence of the book shines through. Stickiness may not be something that we often think of as a science issue, but Winkless both shows how interesting it can be, and also how much there is still to learn in this topic that affects all our everyday lives.
Without doubt, Winkless is great at bringing storytelling to her writing. She frames her information well with interviews, visits to places and her personal experiences. But of itself, that isn't enough. The reason, for example, I was captivated by her section on the remarkable (though oddly, given the book's title, entirely non-sticky) adhesive qualities of the gecko's foot was really about the way that Winkless takes us through the different viewpoints on how the foot's adhesion works. We get plenty of science and also a touch of controversy. I'd read plenty of books before that made reference to geckos' feet - but I got far more from this book than I ever have before.
Another example of a section that totally surprised and delighted me was one covering curling (the obscure winter sport, not the business of a hairdresser). I have no interest in any sport - yet what it's possible to do with curling stones, and how the ice is being manipulated by both the bottom of the stone and the broom was totally fascinating. Again, part of the appeal was that the science wasn't cut and dried. We got to witness a real, fierce if friendly, scientific to-and-fro between two opposing theories (neither of which has yet to come out on top).
I had already read a good, but ultimately too detailed, book on adhesives (Steve Abbott's Sticking Together) before, and Winkless covers these in passing, but there is a far wider coverage here. (Amusingly, given the cover, one thing that isn't covered is chewing gum.) We get into the hydrodynamic properties of swim suits (and sharks), air resistance, all sorts of oddities of ice (including a new view on that old point about skates not melting ice due to pressure), tyres, earthquakes, gauge blocks (I'd never heard of these, but now want some) and more. I won't deny that, as is often the case with material science or geology books, just occasionally the same factors came back a touch too often, but the range of topics was sufficient to revive the interest very quickly.
It's also the kind of book where you discover lots of really interesting snippets of information. For example, I hadn’t realised that the moment magnitude scale used to describe the strength of earthquakes (the Richter scale hasn't been used for decades, despite constant references in the media) doesn’t take into account the depth at which the quake occurs. So, for instance, Winkless describes experiencing a devastating-sounding magnitude 6.2 quake (she lives in New Zealand) but all it did was roll some pencils off her desk.
So what was the problem at the beginning? It was Winkless's journalistic strength coming back to bite her. There is sometimes so much focus on the interviewees that it focused on their interests too tightly, getting in the way of the science. A later example of this was in the chapter on tyres - Winkless hangs this on Formula 1. She talks to F1 people and as a result there is far too much about F1 tyres and circumstances for anyone who doesn't care about the sport and would rather the focus was on the tyres normal people, like the readers, use. That opening issue that nearly put me off was a really interesting unknown - how ancient cave art pigments manage to stick so well to stone - that was almost entirely hidden with pages that had nothing to do with stickiness or science, just the interests of her interviewees.
Overall, though, this was not a problem, as the excellence of the book shines through. Stickiness may not be something that we often think of as a science issue, but Winkless both shows how interesting it can be, and also how much there is still to learn in this topic that affects all our everyday lives.
April 16, 2023
Despite the title "Sticky", this is a book less about gooey things that stick together and more about surfaces - "those places where one material meets another". The official term for this is "tribology" - the science and engineering study of interacting surfaces in relative motion, including friction, corrosion/wear, and lubrication. This field makes use of an interdisciplinary approach including physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, materials science, and engineering.
With a combination of (sometimes meandering) interviews, personal anecdotes and research, Winkless discusses all things friction:- including gecko's feet, the design of sport balls, Teflon, the accidental invention of superglue, human touch and braille, swimsuit design, how tyres "stick" to the road, earthquakes, sound barriers and air friction, ice, gauge blocks (never heard of these before), sticky notes and how paint sticks to the wall (among other things), as well as the still unsolved mysteries and gaps in our knowledge of friction. Personally, I didn't care much for her examples including baseball and F1 racing (sports don't interest me one little bit) and had trouble keeping focused on these chapters. I found the chapters on human touch and earthquakes (making use of New Zealand's geography as an example), particularly interesting. Winkless is enthusiastic about her subject and manages to include a bit of everything. An interesting book.
With a combination of (sometimes meandering) interviews, personal anecdotes and research, Winkless discusses all things friction:- including gecko's feet, the design of sport balls, Teflon, the accidental invention of superglue, human touch and braille, swimsuit design, how tyres "stick" to the road, earthquakes, sound barriers and air friction, ice, gauge blocks (never heard of these before), sticky notes and how paint sticks to the wall (among other things), as well as the still unsolved mysteries and gaps in our knowledge of friction. Personally, I didn't care much for her examples including baseball and F1 racing (sports don't interest me one little bit) and had trouble keeping focused on these chapters. I found the chapters on human touch and earthquakes (making use of New Zealand's geography as an example), particularly interesting. Winkless is enthusiastic about her subject and manages to include a bit of everything. An interesting book.
September 11, 2024
I loved this book.
I knew I would. I've been following Laurie Winkless (initially on Twitter, more recently on Bluesky) for years. She's always been a fantastic communicator of science. Plus, I'm already obsessed with surface science and I have two different adhesive technology handbooks on my shelves. You don't have to be that much of a surface science dork to love this, though! Laurie makes the topic accessible and fascinating for any listener. The chapters that mention curling and Olympic swimming alone would make it worth the read, but every part has something to give.
I have no idea why I took so long to pick this up, but it's my non-fiction favourite this year so far.
I knew I would. I've been following Laurie Winkless (initially on Twitter, more recently on Bluesky) for years. She's always been a fantastic communicator of science. Plus, I'm already obsessed with surface science and I have two different adhesive technology handbooks on my shelves. You don't have to be that much of a surface science dork to love this, though! Laurie makes the topic accessible and fascinating for any listener. The chapters that mention curling and Olympic swimming alone would make it worth the read, but every part has something to give.
I have no idea why I took so long to pick this up, but it's my non-fiction favourite this year so far.
February 22, 2022
Who's this for:
If you like science and like to learn also a bit around the topic itself (it's not a textbook!) and how it connects to other parts of the world, this book is for you. For that it's surprisingly rich. If you want to learn more about and plan to go deeper into the field (outside any school) this book might have quite a lot of references for all the fields that it covers (presuming as I've listened to the audio book).
I liked:
- I really like to learn not only about the specific theme/topic covered in a book but also how it related to other fields and how it connects the dots. The book really shines by taking something so inconspicuous like how things stick together and manages to cover: Geckos, braille, swim suits, tires, earth quakes, sound barrier, ice/curling, paint, golf, baseball and of course adhesives. And it does it in a form that vivid and memorable, helping to add even more appreciation for the topic.
- What always amazes me to read such a well researched and unfamiliar topic is how much details and know-how is covered in just this area. The world is amazingly complex and yet we somehow are able to abstract away all this complexity so we can just use a Post-It and plaster it onto a wall without having to understand anything about why it sticks so well. This book does this exceptionally well by showing the depth of the field but it's breath in applications.
- Many inventions that were mentioned were found by combining different fields in a new and unexpected way. The inventors often showed a broadness and openness outside their immediate fields; or had multiple as analysed in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
I didn't like:
- The book meanders a bit around topics. It's something I also list on the things I like but in the beginning it's a bit confusing as there's a lot of story around things that are seemingly not really important. Strictly speaking they often aren't (about the caves, formula 1, etc.) but they broaden the horizon outside of the strict topic. I think it's just something that could have been made clearer initially.
Things I learned:
There are so many things that one absorbs by reading the book and I can't go into all of the interesting learnings all the fields mentioned above without having to repeat the book, so I try to summarise the main learnings of the fundamentals.
There are 3-4 models of adhesion:
- Chemical
- Mechanical
- Diffusion
- Electrostatic
There seems to be not complete consensus how many and which they are. A quick search also revealed a total of 6 (adding boundary layers and interfaces and adsorption).
Friction is an umbrella term to package and describe the effect with a single number "mu" for big events such as earthquakes and in the small for atomic level bonds.
So basically the whole field of stickiness and surface science can be reduced to the number "mu", which is the number how well two materials slide on each other. The holy grail is to get to a predictive model for the number "mu" given a set of properties of the two materials. But up to know this number had to be found entirely empirical (=a lot of try & error of all kinds of materials under all kinds of circumstances).
So on the one side the whole field is extremely elegant and simple from a model perspective. You just need to have the number "mu". But getting there is tough and there are so many different factors on all scales playing into it that it seems almost impossible to build a predictive model for this. In the end it's also up to how electrons behave and that is governed by quantum mechanics and therefore not predictable (see also In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality).
Some more anecdotes/learnings that were especially surprising for me:
- Water "stickyness" as experienced by boats, swimmers, sharks, etc. can be grouped into 3 main groups: 1) Form drag 2) Wave drag and 3) Skin friction.
- It was a key learning that air can be compressed to make supersonic flight possible. Mentioned was also the SR-71, which was also covered as a technical masterpiece in Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed.
- The force behind earthquakes (stick slip) is similar to the one used for violins.
- Glacier ice is a solid close to the melting point and has comparable properties to lava.
- Haptography will be big and important in VR.
- There's something named "cold wielding", which is basically the thing that when atoms of the same material but from two different objects get very close "forget" that they are different objects. That leads to that they can merge under certain circumstances and obtain the same and indistinguishable properties as the not wielded parts (same strength).
If you like science and like to learn also a bit around the topic itself (it's not a textbook!) and how it connects to other parts of the world, this book is for you. For that it's surprisingly rich. If you want to learn more about and plan to go deeper into the field (outside any school) this book might have quite a lot of references for all the fields that it covers (presuming as I've listened to the audio book).
I liked:
- I really like to learn not only about the specific theme/topic covered in a book but also how it related to other fields and how it connects the dots. The book really shines by taking something so inconspicuous like how things stick together and manages to cover: Geckos, braille, swim suits, tires, earth quakes, sound barrier, ice/curling, paint, golf, baseball and of course adhesives. And it does it in a form that vivid and memorable, helping to add even more appreciation for the topic.
- What always amazes me to read such a well researched and unfamiliar topic is how much details and know-how is covered in just this area. The world is amazingly complex and yet we somehow are able to abstract away all this complexity so we can just use a Post-It and plaster it onto a wall without having to understand anything about why it sticks so well. This book does this exceptionally well by showing the depth of the field but it's breath in applications.
- Many inventions that were mentioned were found by combining different fields in a new and unexpected way. The inventors often showed a broadness and openness outside their immediate fields; or had multiple as analysed in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
I didn't like:
- The book meanders a bit around topics. It's something I also list on the things I like but in the beginning it's a bit confusing as there's a lot of story around things that are seemingly not really important. Strictly speaking they often aren't (about the caves, formula 1, etc.) but they broaden the horizon outside of the strict topic. I think it's just something that could have been made clearer initially.
Things I learned:
There are so many things that one absorbs by reading the book and I can't go into all of the interesting learnings all the fields mentioned above without having to repeat the book, so I try to summarise the main learnings of the fundamentals.
There are 3-4 models of adhesion:
- Chemical
- Mechanical
- Diffusion
- Electrostatic
There seems to be not complete consensus how many and which they are. A quick search also revealed a total of 6 (adding boundary layers and interfaces and adsorption).
Friction is an umbrella term to package and describe the effect with a single number "mu" for big events such as earthquakes and in the small for atomic level bonds.
So basically the whole field of stickiness and surface science can be reduced to the number "mu", which is the number how well two materials slide on each other. The holy grail is to get to a predictive model for the number "mu" given a set of properties of the two materials. But up to know this number had to be found entirely empirical (=a lot of try & error of all kinds of materials under all kinds of circumstances).
So on the one side the whole field is extremely elegant and simple from a model perspective. You just need to have the number "mu". But getting there is tough and there are so many different factors on all scales playing into it that it seems almost impossible to build a predictive model for this. In the end it's also up to how electrons behave and that is governed by quantum mechanics and therefore not predictable (see also In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality).
Some more anecdotes/learnings that were especially surprising for me:
- Water "stickyness" as experienced by boats, swimmers, sharks, etc. can be grouped into 3 main groups: 1) Form drag 2) Wave drag and 3) Skin friction.
- It was a key learning that air can be compressed to make supersonic flight possible. Mentioned was also the SR-71, which was also covered as a technical masterpiece in Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed.
- The force behind earthquakes (stick slip) is similar to the one used for violins.
- Glacier ice is a solid close to the melting point and has comparable properties to lava.
- Haptography will be big and important in VR.
- There's something named "cold wielding", which is basically the thing that when atoms of the same material but from two different objects get very close "forget" that they are different objects. That leads to that they can merge under certain circumstances and obtain the same and indistinguishable properties as the not wielded parts (same strength).
August 10, 2024
I don't recall how this ended up on my list, but the first few pages set the tone for me. The flow chart where you end up with duct tape (it moves and it shouldn't) or WD-40 (it doesn't move and it should). This slim volume went way beyond that, surprising and pleasing me.
Friction is easy to measure in an ideal situation, but impossible to predict in the real world. This book examines ice, rubber, asphalt, earthquakes, and the fingertips of humans and geckoes. In addition to driving, it also looks at swimming and flying. Every chapter was fascinating.
The author finds experts to work with in each field, and doesn't hesitate to recommend books and videos in the footnotes. Further, and noticeably so, the majority of these experts seem to be women. I'm very glad that science, as portrayed here, isn't suffering from the male domination of computer science. I strongly recommend this book and look forward to reading more from Laurie Winkless.
Friction is easy to measure in an ideal situation, but impossible to predict in the real world. This book examines ice, rubber, asphalt, earthquakes, and the fingertips of humans and geckoes. In addition to driving, it also looks at swimming and flying. Every chapter was fascinating.
The author finds experts to work with in each field, and doesn't hesitate to recommend books and videos in the footnotes. Further, and noticeably so, the majority of these experts seem to be women. I'm very glad that science, as portrayed here, isn't suffering from the male domination of computer science. I strongly recommend this book and look forward to reading more from Laurie Winkless.
May 3, 2024
Interessant, maar eigenlijk net te diepgravend voor mij. Er is een grens aan hoeveel details over gekkopoten, F1-banden, curling en grafeen ik kan hebben.
October 5, 2023
Book 7/12 2023
October 16, 2022
I wanted my review to say the book was "gripping" but the chapters were up and down for me. Overall the text is excellent and the subject is thoroughly covered. It was just technical enough and shouldn't be hard to follow for non-technical readers because there is no math, just basic concepts. I would recommend it for high schoolers considering STEM careers, and interested adults who like to read about the world around them.
The author definitely did her job but I will suggest to the editor that a reordering of the chapters might have made for a better read. For instance, instead of starting with a chapter on paint drying (the very stereotype of boredom), why not start with the chapter on race cars? None of the chapters depend on earlier chapters, so they can appear in any order. You need to hook the reader up front to make him want to keep reading.
If you want to read a little about a topic that involves the mechanics of friction, stickiness, etc., here's a lay text written by an author experienced in the field. I recommend it.
The author definitely did her job but I will suggest to the editor that a reordering of the chapters might have made for a better read. For instance, instead of starting with a chapter on paint drying (the very stereotype of boredom), why not start with the chapter on race cars? None of the chapters depend on earlier chapters, so they can appear in any order. You need to hook the reader up front to make him want to keep reading.
If you want to read a little about a topic that involves the mechanics of friction, stickiness, etc., here's a lay text written by an author experienced in the field. I recommend it.
January 12, 2023
3.5 rounded up.
Note: this review is from a completly ignorant person when it comes to science (but wants to learn!)
While I found aspects interesting and fascinating, I'm afraid it didn't 'stick' well to my brain. This could be my (personal) AuDHD, but I found topics chosen by the author a bit tedious at times (such as the swimsuits and tires) while others very interesting (gecko toes and indigonous paint preservation).
Language and accessability slipped between understandable to complicated quite frequently, which was difficult and made me have to reread paragraphs a few times over.
Note: this review is from a completly ignorant person when it comes to science (but wants to learn!)
While I found aspects interesting and fascinating, I'm afraid it didn't 'stick' well to my brain. This could be my (personal) AuDHD, but I found topics chosen by the author a bit tedious at times (such as the swimsuits and tires) while others very interesting (gecko toes and indigonous paint preservation).
Language and accessability slipped between understandable to complicated quite frequently, which was difficult and made me have to reread paragraphs a few times over.
August 18, 2022
Such an interesting topic, but the book is riddled with footnotes, which make it difficult to get into a good flow. Sometimes the footnote was a big long paragraph, so you had to read it and then find your place back into the narrative.
Book not solely about stickiness, with a combination of really engaging chapters, and others that felt like they could have worked better with more visuals and data.
Book not solely about stickiness, with a combination of really engaging chapters, and others that felt like they could have worked better with more visuals and data.
May 30, 2024
This book provides a fascinating exploration of the world of surfaces. I especially enjoyed the author's anecdotes and the footnotes at the end of each chapter. Here are some highlights (more like my personal notes, spoilers ahead):
-How did paint created over 20,000 years ago adhere to its surface for so long? (While this remains a mystery, it is hypothesized that desert varnish and favourable weather conditions played a role.)
- How do oil-based vs water-based paint differ in adhering to walls? (Oil-based paint uses oxygen to form bonds between molecules, a process known as "curing," creating a dense network of molecular chains that hardens into a solid film. Water-based paint, on the other hand, has pigments suspended in water, which evaporates to leave a thin film of pigment.)
- Why were full-body Polyurethane Suits banned after their launch at the 2008 Olympics? (The suits were designed to improve swimmers' form and were almost impermeable, trapping air between the skin and the suit. This allowed swimmers to float higher in the water, reducing drag. This was considered an enhancement, equivalent to wearing fins!)
- What have we tried to increase speed and fuel efficiency by reducing the drag on boats? (1. Biocide paint that prevents the growth of organisms, although harmful to the environment; 2. Pitcher-plant-mucus-inspired paint with microscopic pores that trap lubricants, making it difficult for organisms to cling; 3. Riblets that control the flow of fluids; 4. A layer of air bubbles continuously blown to the bottom of the boat, which is challenging to maintain; 5. Sea-fern-inspired surfaces with a dense forest of hydrophobic whisk-like hairs with hydrophilic tips, which seal air bubbles within the "whisk", still in development.)
- How do geckos stick to walls and detach quickly? (Geckos' toe pads have branching hairs that increase or decrease surface interaction based on the angle of their feet, using van der Waals forces that act when molecules are very close.)
- What is the perfect Skating Temperature? (Around -7°C, where quasi-liquid continuously fills damaged surfaces of ice. Ice hockey is usually played between -5 and -7.5°C, while figure skating requires slightly warmer ice at around -3°C to cushion landings, with thicker ice.)
- How do we feel with our fingertips? (The most interesting mechanoreceptors are 1. mechanoreceptors that sense indentations and low-frequency vibrations for static touch, 2. other mechanoreceptors that gather information through movement for dynamic touch, these are hidden on the inside of the finger print ridges, and are only exposed when you move your finger - crucial for reading braille)
- What are the conditions for cold welding? It requires clean surfaces, physical stress on one metal, and relative motion and friction. Galileo's antenna system experienced cold welding when stored in a vacuum, leading to the antennas welding together during launch. The four-year storage deformed and cracked the outer ceramic coating of the antenna, and during launch, significant stress and vibration caused them to rub together. In the absence of an oxide coating (due to being in a vacuum), the antennas welded together, preventing the wire mesh dish from deploying.
While I enjoyed this book, some chapters were challenging to get through, which might reflect my personal interests rather than the book's content. The complexity of the scientific explanations made parts of the book feel dense (especially when many concepts are only explained once), which is perhaps inevitable when covering diverse fields like physics, chemistry, and engineering in 300 pages. Despite this, the book serves as a very good introduction to the world of stickiness (or lack of stickiness!).
-How did paint created over 20,000 years ago adhere to its surface for so long? (While this remains a mystery, it is hypothesized that desert varnish and favourable weather conditions played a role.)
- How do oil-based vs water-based paint differ in adhering to walls? (Oil-based paint uses oxygen to form bonds between molecules, a process known as "curing," creating a dense network of molecular chains that hardens into a solid film. Water-based paint, on the other hand, has pigments suspended in water, which evaporates to leave a thin film of pigment.)
- Why were full-body Polyurethane Suits banned after their launch at the 2008 Olympics? (The suits were designed to improve swimmers' form and were almost impermeable, trapping air between the skin and the suit. This allowed swimmers to float higher in the water, reducing drag. This was considered an enhancement, equivalent to wearing fins!)
- What have we tried to increase speed and fuel efficiency by reducing the drag on boats? (1. Biocide paint that prevents the growth of organisms, although harmful to the environment; 2. Pitcher-plant-mucus-inspired paint with microscopic pores that trap lubricants, making it difficult for organisms to cling; 3. Riblets that control the flow of fluids; 4. A layer of air bubbles continuously blown to the bottom of the boat, which is challenging to maintain; 5. Sea-fern-inspired surfaces with a dense forest of hydrophobic whisk-like hairs with hydrophilic tips, which seal air bubbles within the "whisk", still in development.)
- How do geckos stick to walls and detach quickly? (Geckos' toe pads have branching hairs that increase or decrease surface interaction based on the angle of their feet, using van der Waals forces that act when molecules are very close.)
- What is the perfect Skating Temperature? (Around -7°C, where quasi-liquid continuously fills damaged surfaces of ice. Ice hockey is usually played between -5 and -7.5°C, while figure skating requires slightly warmer ice at around -3°C to cushion landings, with thicker ice.)
- How do we feel with our fingertips? (The most interesting mechanoreceptors are 1. mechanoreceptors that sense indentations and low-frequency vibrations for static touch, 2. other mechanoreceptors that gather information through movement for dynamic touch, these are hidden on the inside of the finger print ridges, and are only exposed when you move your finger - crucial for reading braille)
- What are the conditions for cold welding? It requires clean surfaces, physical stress on one metal, and relative motion and friction. Galileo's antenna system experienced cold welding when stored in a vacuum, leading to the antennas welding together during launch. The four-year storage deformed and cracked the outer ceramic coating of the antenna, and during launch, significant stress and vibration caused them to rub together. In the absence of an oxide coating (due to being in a vacuum), the antennas welded together, preventing the wire mesh dish from deploying.
While I enjoyed this book, some chapters were challenging to get through, which might reflect my personal interests rather than the book's content. The complexity of the scientific explanations made parts of the book feel dense (especially when many concepts are only explained once), which is perhaps inevitable when covering diverse fields like physics, chemistry, and engineering in 300 pages. Despite this, the book serves as a very good introduction to the world of stickiness (or lack of stickiness!).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2023
Ergens tussen 3 en 5 voor deze lezer , voor de meer technische lezer zal het waarschijnlijk een 5 sterren boek zijn , met (technische) uitleg en duiding van wrijving en kleving bij oa gekko’s , zwempakken, balsporten , ijsvorming bij vliegtuigen en ijs sporten , formule 1 en hun banden enz allemaal voorzien van (uitstekend technische) uitleg ,
Ik vond meer mijn interesse in de hoofdstukken over Bv haptografie , en de zoektocht naar wrijvingswetten, met oa snelheid , thermodynamica en atoom samenstellingen ,
Het heeft mij ook doen nadenken over grenzen waar eindigt iets en waar begint iets , grens van levende en dode atomen , uitglijden en vallen zorgt voor meer contact , loslaten en vasthouden
Een interessant boek met (technische) uitleg hoe het komt dat iets min of iets meer beweegt ,
Ik vond meer mijn interesse in de hoofdstukken over Bv haptografie , en de zoektocht naar wrijvingswetten, met oa snelheid , thermodynamica en atoom samenstellingen ,
Het heeft mij ook doen nadenken over grenzen waar eindigt iets en waar begint iets , grens van levende en dode atomen , uitglijden en vallen zorgt voor meer contact , loslaten en vasthouden
Een interessant boek met (technische) uitleg hoe het komt dat iets min of iets meer beweegt ,
April 20, 2024
I did like it, but I wanted to like it more.
Each chapter is some sort of example of things that stick to each other, or slide by each other. And they are very eclectic. There’s high-tech swimsuits, gecko feet, paint (it has to stick to the wall, and the color has to stick to what’s stuck to the wall), plate tectonics, ice (with a long bit about curling), airplanes, racecars. And probably more. Some I was more interested in than others; some felt like a stretch.
But the author is enjoying herself, so that’s good. And she is good at explaining complicated things, and explaining what is complicated. (Well, it’s kinda all complicated.)
There are about 15 footnotes per chapter, about one of which directs you to a YouTube video or other explanatory web page. Most of these were pretty good.
Each chapter is some sort of example of things that stick to each other, or slide by each other. And they are very eclectic. There’s high-tech swimsuits, gecko feet, paint (it has to stick to the wall, and the color has to stick to what’s stuck to the wall), plate tectonics, ice (with a long bit about curling), airplanes, racecars. And probably more. Some I was more interested in than others; some felt like a stretch.
But the author is enjoying herself, so that’s good. And she is good at explaining complicated things, and explaining what is complicated. (Well, it’s kinda all complicated.)
There are about 15 footnotes per chapter, about one of which directs you to a YouTube video or other explanatory web page. Most of these were pretty good.
June 29, 2026
I think this book can be kind of frustrating if you already have a good understanding of the topics in this book. I understand that this book is meant for the layperson as
explicitly stated in the introduction, but as someone with an engineering degree, I find some of the ways some natural phenomena like friction and slip and such are explained, are almost reduced down so much that they are often just incorrect or misleading explanations that almost feel like i’m ‘unlearning’ these concepts i’m very familiar with. I am aware that this interpretation of this book is probably due to a bias developed by my inherent trust in the information I have collected from various university prescribed textbooks, but I just can’t help think that, if I were reading this book with absolutely zero knowledge in the field of materials science/engineering, I would be extremely confused
explicitly stated in the introduction, but as someone with an engineering degree, I find some of the ways some natural phenomena like friction and slip and such are explained, are almost reduced down so much that they are often just incorrect or misleading explanations that almost feel like i’m ‘unlearning’ these concepts i’m very familiar with. I am aware that this interpretation of this book is probably due to a bias developed by my inherent trust in the information I have collected from various university prescribed textbooks, but I just can’t help think that, if I were reading this book with absolutely zero knowledge in the field of materials science/engineering, I would be extremely confused
October 9, 2024
How I rate:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Rare, Perfection
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Recommend.
⭐⭐⭐ It was okay.
⭐⭐ I didn't enjoy it.
⭐ DNF
Sticky isn't just a 'How It's Made' guide to Sellotape and Gorilla Glue, oh no. It's a guided tour through the history of adhesion; from gecko feet and lotus leaves and how they react with water which then leads to their influences on things like the bodysuits Olympic swimmers wear. It's about why cricketers polish the ball on their trousers (or, if you're Australian, rough it up in your pocket with sandpaper😉 ).
There are moments where the sheer amount of chatter about forces and physics and all that good stuff can be a bit daunting, but Laurie has a real way with conveying fairly complex (to me anyway) ideas in a very digestible way. Once I got into it, I was hooked.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Rare, Perfection
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Recommend.
⭐⭐⭐ It was okay.
⭐⭐ I didn't enjoy it.
⭐ DNF
Sticky isn't just a 'How It's Made' guide to Sellotape and Gorilla Glue, oh no. It's a guided tour through the history of adhesion; from gecko feet and lotus leaves and how they react with water which then leads to their influences on things like the bodysuits Olympic swimmers wear. It's about why cricketers polish the ball on their trousers (or, if you're Australian, rough it up in your pocket with sandpaper😉 ).
There are moments where the sheer amount of chatter about forces and physics and all that good stuff can be a bit daunting, but Laurie has a real way with conveying fairly complex (to me anyway) ideas in a very digestible way. Once I got into it, I was hooked.
January 20, 2022
I’m not naturally scientifically minded, but having read & enjoyed Laurie Winkless’s previous book ‘Science & the City’ I was intrigued to try out her second book. Yet again Laurie’s writing skills make this topic accessible and understandable even for a scientific simpleton like me. Laurie always explains things in a way that you can grasp, giving a commendable analysis of things without it getting bogged down in too much jargon (but equally without it seeming 'dumbed down'). Her interviews with the experts are genuinely interesting, and I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Formula One and hearing from that world. Another triumph and highly recommended!
March 29, 2024
A decent "light science" book. Good variety of topics with plenty of illustrative everyday examples. Overall worth the read.
One weird annoyance was the extraneous footnotes. For example, in a section about cricket (the sport) the author used the word "batsman", then in a footnote mentioned that the industry is shifting to the neutral term "batter". Why not just use "batter" in the text and leave out the note? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for social and environmental progress. But I'm here to learn about the interaction between tires and the roadway, not about the author's inner conflict over owning her car.
One weird annoyance was the extraneous footnotes. For example, in a section about cricket (the sport) the author used the word "batsman", then in a footnote mentioned that the industry is shifting to the neutral term "batter". Why not just use "batter" in the text and leave out the note? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for social and environmental progress. But I'm here to learn about the interaction between tires and the roadway, not about the author's inner conflict over owning her car.
May 14, 2024
Woahhhhh this book was a lot! I guess I should have known from this description that the book would be heavily physics-based:
Somehow I anticipated that this book would be a bit less dense, or with a funnier writing style. I think the content was also not super well organized, and the themes switched abruptly without some sort of connecting thread. That being said, once I got into it, I really liked it and did learn a lot! It reminded me of books like Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life and The Gecko's Foot: Bio-inspiration: Engineering New Materials from Nature, so if you liked those, you would probably enjoy this too.
Overall, I would recommend it for a niche science book about friction as it applied to a wide variety of topics- how geckos climb, how our sense of touch works, how airplanes and golf balls fly, how F1 tires are made, competitive swimsuits, superglue, ... and the list goes on!
"Laurie Winkless explores some of the ways that friction shapes both the manufactured and natural worlds, and describes how our understanding of surface science has given us an ability to manipulate stickiness, down to the level of a single atom."
Somehow I anticipated that this book would be a bit less dense, or with a funnier writing style. I think the content was also not super well organized, and the themes switched abruptly without some sort of connecting thread. That being said, once I got into it, I really liked it and did learn a lot! It reminded me of books like Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life and The Gecko's Foot: Bio-inspiration: Engineering New Materials from Nature, so if you liked those, you would probably enjoy this too.
Overall, I would recommend it for a niche science book about friction as it applied to a wide variety of topics- how geckos climb, how our sense of touch works, how airplanes and golf balls fly, how F1 tires are made, competitive swimsuits, superglue, ... and the list goes on!
November 20, 2021
I enjoyed this book. I loved the conversational tone and Winkless’s sense of humor. I very much appreciated her enthusiasm; it made the book a better read. She incorporates her own journey into the story, making it more interesting. I did find, however, that some of the explanations were too technical, especially her discussion of close contact. Overall, this is a book well worth reading. Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury USA for the advance reader copy.
May 31, 2024
I learned so much from this enjoyable read - 'Sticky' really appeals to my multidisciplinary interests by following the thread of a concept (surface interactions) across so many areas of science
Surface science is present basically everywhere, it turns out. Winkless spends just enough time digging into the theory behind each example without losing momentum
Earthquakes! Geckos! Space probes! Rock art! It's all here
Surface science is present basically everywhere, it turns out. Winkless spends just enough time digging into the theory behind each example without losing momentum
Earthquakes! Geckos! Space probes! Rock art! It's all here
May 29, 2025
A curiously old-fashioned book. Written in the 21st century, it feels like it belongs in the 1950s. Winkless knows her stuff, but her reporting is faithful rather than inspired: leg work, setting, attribution, quotes. The Formula 1 racing chapter was the best part. The lizards and the ice were good, too.
I've lived in New Zealand for sixty years and never heard it referred to as "The Shaky Isles.". Must be an Australian phrase.
I've lived in New Zealand for sixty years and never heard it referred to as "The Shaky Isles.". Must be an Australian phrase.
March 31, 2023
A great pop science book in the best sense. Easy to read, engrossing, and littered with interesting insights. There are places where for me, another level of detail would have made it perfect.
But that slight negative (and the are lots of references to dive into) I will happily recommend this widely and I’ll be passing my copy on to my daughter to read.
But that slight negative (and the are lots of references to dive into) I will happily recommend this widely and I’ll be passing my copy on to my daughter to read.
September 16, 2023
If you like fun facts, this is definitely for you.
The title may not draw the attention, but the content is about tribology..
from sticky notes, to F1 tires, etc etc I got way more excitement reading this than I expected.
Highly recommended!
The title may not draw the attention, but the content is about tribology..
from sticky notes, to F1 tires, etc etc I got way more excitement reading this than I expected.
Highly recommended!
March 14, 2024
Very readable and fun writing style. Starts strong and then I found some of the later chapters felt a bit off topic. For example, there's a chapter on earthquakes because that's the earth slipping and sticking. That's fine, but I didn't entirely enjoy that as much as some of the early chapters.
April 22, 2025
An engaging and wide ranging discussion of why things are sticky, geckos, swimming, airplanes, tires, tectonic plates & earthquakes, melting ice, our skin, and what items "touching" actually means.
I highly recommend this!
I highly recommend this!
March 15, 2022
This book is actually deep the more you read! Beautiful exploration about science that hiding in the plain sight: surface!
March 19, 2022
Full of interesting explanations of the science in our everyday life. The chapter on swimsuits is entertaining and informative.
May 11, 2022
Laurie makes science so interesting, even as someone coming into a subject with absolutely no knowledge! Loved it.
July 31, 2022
Not a page turner, but full of useful info from the world of surfaces and the contact between them.
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