Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way)

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Agrawal’s detours into politics – the plight of women in STEM, the use of male physical norms in product design – are less happy. They would hardly raise an eyebrow, had she only given them the space they deserved. As it is, she invites the reader to genuflect before some highly dubious ex cathedra statements. 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. The idea for ‘Nuts and Bolts’ has been with the author most of her life, and she recalls her childhood in New York where she whiled away her time decoding the “sheer scale and drama” of the skyscrapers that surrounded her. This curiosity extended to cars, computers and coffee machines, leading her down a path not only to a successful career in engineering, but also towards a deep understanding of the evolution of these early innovations that would become fascinating chapters in a book about who we were, are and will be as humans.

Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World

Smartphones, skyscrapers, spacecraft. Modern technology seems mind-bogglingly complex. But beneath the surface, it can be beautifully simple. 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 enabledspace exploration, and how humble lenses helped her conceive a child against the odds. Take the story of Stephanie Kwolek, a chemistry major who in 1946 got a job at the chemicals company DuPont and invented poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide (Kevlar fibre to you). Agrawal says Kwolek’s discovery was “all the more noteworthy because it took place in an industry that, at the time, was extremely male-dominated.”So, as engineers, let’s place the good of the planet and its inhabitants at the heart of our work,” Agrawal concludes, with a glibness that would be funny if it were not so trying.

Nuts and Bolts Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World

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.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. About the author

Nuts and Bolts by Roma Agrawal | Hachette UK

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.What form did this extreme domination take? No good asking Kwolek who, by her own account, “was fortunate that I worked under men who were very much interested in making discoveries and inventions. Because they were so interested in what they were doing, they left me alone.”