Nuts and Bolts

An ambitious but accessible book exploring how seven small inventions from the nail to the spring have shaped our world, by the engineer who designed The Shard.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2023*
*AS HEARD ON RADIO 4 START THE WEEK, OFF AIR WITH FI AND JANE AND 99% INVISIBLE*

'Delightful' TIM HARFORD, FINANCIAL TIMES
'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

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.