Nuts and Bolts

Shard engineer Roma Agrawal deconstructs our most complex inventions into seven fundamental objects: the nail, spring, wheel, lens, magnet, string and pump.

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'Delightful' – TIM HARFORD, FINANCIAL TIMES

'Appeals to the nerdy side of just about all of us... a great book to give' – JANE GARVEY

'Splendid. Clearly written, elegantly structured full of facts you are unlikely to chance on anywhere else' – DAILY MAIL

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR*

Smartphones, skyscrapers, spacecraft. Modern technology seems mind-bogglingly complex. But beneath the surface, it can be beautifully simple.

Tracing their journeys through the millennia, Roma Agrawal shows us 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. Eye-opening and engaging, Nuts and Bolts reveals the hidden building blocks of our modern world, and shows how engineering has fundamentally changed the way we live.

'A wonderful book' – MARK MIODOWNIK

'A masterclass in storytelling' – JESS WADE

'A riveting love letter to the small, wonderful, and mundane things that make the modern world.' – ROMAN MARS

AS HEARD ON RADIO 4 START THE WEEK, OFF AIR WITH FI AND JANE AND 99% INVISIBLE