"When I was a child, like most children, I wanted to learn and understand. I asked eagerly, partly to pass the time, partly to grasp how the world works. I was fortunate that my parents were involved in science. And thanks to their answers, a world made up of rules, causes, and effects opened up before me, a world of physics, medicine, chemistry, and biology. After all, behind every aspect of everyday life hides a scientific mystery - on vacation, idleness and boredom make us more curious. It is to this curiosity that the book you are holding in your hands owes its existence, born on a beach in Tuscany in the 1990s.

So here we have small windows into a mysterious world. We don't need to open them all, nor do we need to open them in the order I suggest. Go wherever the wave and the wind lead you; there will always be time to go back and forth, to jump from one subject to another, following the thread you desire. The framework encompasses four scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, and the environment. But don't be deceived by this practical distinction.

Each chapter contains sentences from different sciences. Take the book as a beautiful day you will spend by the sea."

From the introduction by A.Tz.