Nuts and Bolts

Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way)

By: Roma Agrawal

Narrated by: Roma Agrawal

A structural engineer examines the seven most basic building blocks of engineering that have shaped the modern world.

Some of engineering's mightiest achievements are small in scale, even hidden—and yet, without them, the complex machinery on which our modern world runs would not exist. In Nuts and Bolts, Roma Agrawal examines seven of these extraordinary elements: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the lens, the magnet, the string, and the pump.

From the physics behind both Roman nails and modern skyscrapers to rudimentary springs that inspired lithium batteries, Agrawal shows us how even the most sophisticated items are built on the foundations of these ancient and fundamental breakthroughs in engineering. Agrawal explores an array of intricate technologies—dishwashers, spacesuits, microscopes, suspension bridges, breast pumps—making surprising connections and explaining how they work. Along the way, she recounts the stories of remarkable scientists and engineers from all over the world, and reveals how engineering has fundamentally changed the way we live.

©2023 Roma The Engineer Ltd (P)2023 Tantor

Okay

The author was an okay narrator but I think the book would have benefited from a professional. The book also had some tonal shifts as it careened between environmentalist warning, fun facts, and author memoir that made it a little disconcerting

Brilliant Analysis

Everything around us is something we take for granted. Everything that is great and magnificent starts out small.

Seeing how common these objects are and how their basic understanding has led to numerous marvels and discoveries is quite interesting. Empirical instances and prospective future initiatives.

Written so skillfully that a sixth grader could understand it.

Good start

The idea of the book and the beginning were good, then the author turned political and the last 50 to 60% of the book was very disappointing.

Thought provoking

This was similar (but not as good) to Johnson’s book but with a few different takes. Overall good read. I had trouble understanding the reader. It was read by the author with is not a good idea if you have a thick accent

Many interesting points

Deep dive into each subject. Could have covered more inventions- book 2? That would be nice.

An articulate view of stuff

Roma Agrawal is an engineer, and, as an engineer myself, I can relate to how she parses her view of reality. Many of her explanations are somewhat obvious, but she covers more complex objects and systems with a surprising ability to convey the essence of how something works without becoming ensnared with details that would be too tedious for most readers to follow. As an engineer, I tend to explain in too much detail, only sometimes realizing it is time to back off when seeing my audience glazing over. It seems few are as interested in the fine details as I am :-) Of course, to make our machines function, we must acknowledge that the devil is in the details, and we can't gloss over them. But when explaining these things, it is important to convey the main concepts, and it is OK to leave some details for the student to sort out.

Roma took me deeper than I had seen before in several cases, and I learned some interesting things. But, even when the subject was somewhat mundane, and I fully understood it, Roma's clear and articulate voice was pleasant to follow, even when I had to interpret some English pronunciations that are quite foreign to this American.

Roma's concept for this book is unusual and clever. I enjoyed having her read it to me.

It's a little too personal

I think the author did not need to confide QUITE so many personal details about her own body and periods and motherhood etc. Her tech story is excellent--the personal insights were kind of unwelcome. She could have made vivid discriptions and still kept her distance. A good reporter reports on what happens in the world, not on what they themselves felt and did.

Too shallow

I was looking forward to this, but I'm not sure why I feel dissapointed. Topic is interesting, but somehow the I feel everyting is too superficial

Getting pregnant & using technology

The subject of nuts and bolts applications in todays world is interesting but the author gets somewhat sideways with personal anecdotes about pregnancy, breast pumps and child rearing