Under The Microscope

THE SECRET HOUSE, by David Bodanis; McMillan; 224 pages; $24.95

After reading this book, you may never again be able to shave or eat a potato chip without a few qualms. In gruesome detail, Bodanis takes us through a day in a house, from the pounding sound waves of the morning alarm clock to the nightly sifting of skin cells through the bed sheets to the hungry mites waiting below.

There are some wonderfully graphic descriptions of margarine production, the life of kitchen bacteria and the physics of sneezing. Microphotographs comparing facial hairs cut with an electric razor and with a wet blade certainly provide food for thought for the hapless shaver. Blocks of salt crystals float like some futuristic space station, and closeup shots of a weevil bursting out of a rice grain rivals any movie's special effects material.

Bodanis is able to look at the most mundane of situations -- wiping a table, vacuum-cleaning the carpet -- and infuse them with glamour, terror, struggle and triumph. It's a painless way of learning how science can be applied to everyday life: the idea that potato chip manfacuturers have to consider acoutics in chip design, or the rather complicated and unsalubrious chemistry involved in modern cosmetics. It makes great conversational material and makes you think again about the little things in life. It would make gripping television.

Vicki Hyde