Nuts and Bolts

'Appeals to the nerdy side of just about all of us... a great book to give' - Jane Garvey

'A splendid book: clearly written, elegantly structured and full of facts you are unlikely to chance on anywhere else' - Daily Mail

'A wonderful book' - Mark Miodownik, author of Stuff Matters

'A masterclass in storytelling' - Jess Wade, physicist and author of Nano

AS HEARD ON OFF AIR WITH FI AND JANE
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Smartphones, skyscrapers, spacecraft. Modern technology seems mind-bogglingly complex. But beneath the surface, it can be beautifully simple.

In Nuts and Bolts, award-winning Shard engineer and broadcaster Roma Agrawal deconstructs our most complex feats of engineering into seven fundamental inventions: the nail, spring, wheel, lens, magnet, string and pump. Each of these objects is itself a wonder of design, the result of many iterations and refinements. Together, they have enabled humanity to see the invisible, build the spectacular, communicate across vast distances, and even escape our planet.

Tracing the surprising journeys of each invention through the millennia, Roma reveals how handmade Roman nails led to modern skyscrapers, how the potter's wheel enabled space exploration, and how humble lenses helped her conceive a child against the odds.

She invites us to marvel at these small but perfectly formed inventions, sharing the stories of the remarkable, and often unknown, scientists and engineers who made them possible. The nuts and bolts that make up our world may be tiny, and are often hidden, but they've changed our lives in dramatic ways.