Publisher's Synopsis
One hundred years ago hardly anyone knew the first thing about this metal commonly found in the earth's crust. Today aluminium is ubiquitous. It would nowadays be unthinkable to have to make do without it in our daily lives. Aluminium is especially popular in the cosmetics industry - it helps to prevent sunscreen from congealing and facilitates its even distribution on the skin; in deodorants, it reacts with the cells of the skin and changes them so much that they can't produce sweat anymore; medicines for heartburn often contain a high proportion of aluminium; aluminium is included in two-thirds of all vaccines as an active amplifier; water companies use aluminium compounds to eradicate impurities and then supply our households with drinking water, which inevitably still contains traces of the metal.
