Rubber: The Social and Natural History of an Indispensable Substance

About the Book

THIS FASCINATING SOCIAL AND NATURAL HISTORY OF RUBBER WILL LAY BARE THE SHOCKING STORY OF AN ANCIENT SUBSTANCE THAT EXISTS QUIETLY IN THE BACKDROP OF OUR EVERYDAY LIVES.

'The Aztecs and the Mayas believed that rubber possessed immense cosmic significance. Today, it is an indispensable and omnipresent part of human society. But how did the journey of the substance take the turns that it did, transforming it from an object of amusing curiosity to one of necessity?

Natural sciences expert Vidya Rajan takes us back in time to the Mesoamerican civilisation when rubber extracted from trees was used for a surprising variety of purposes: from playing an early version of football to making waterproof footwear. She tells us about the patent wars that it sparked. Of how the demand for rubber triggered a terrible, gory exploitation of the native populations of the Amazon Basin and the Congo-regions where rubber trees were found in abundance. Of how rubber came into existence at all, over aeons of existential struggle between plants and animals, and how it shaped them both.

This fascinating social and natural history of rubber will lay bare the extraordinary story of an ancient substance that underpins the fabric of our everyday lives.'

About the Author

Vidya Rajan is a science aficionado. She holds several degrees in the natural sciences and an expired high school science teaching certificate from four different universities on three continents. She writes a monthly science column called 'Inner Nature' and has kept it going for seven years so far. She is married to a congenial man and has two pleasant sons and two agreeable daughters-in-law. She reads copiously and enjoys thinking and red wine; loves dogs, nature walks, cooking and woodworking. Vidya currently works as an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Medical and Molecular Sciences at the University of Delaware, and as a technical writer for a biotechnology company.