This book attempts to explain in basic scientific terms the fundamental cause for many of the properties and behaviour of liquids, solids and air that we see in our daily lives. We can explain and so understand many of the phenomena that we observe everyday using some fairly simple scientific principles developed over many centuries of study of the properties of natural materials. This book demonstrates that a strong scientific background is not needed to explain many of the examples we see in everyday life and in many important industrial processes. The author was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire. He obtained his PhD from Imperial College, London just before moving to Australia in 1978. He has spent most of his academic career at the Australian National University in Canberra, as Professor of Chemistry, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Chair, Board of the Faculties and as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education). In 2009, he was appointed the Founding Chief Investigator of the new National Centre of Excellence in Desalination at Murdoch University, Perth. He is currently a Professor of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales, Canberra.