Travel through centuries of history, through ancient Egypt, along the Silk Road, across the high seas and even into space, and discover how each of these seven small inventions came to be, how they work and how they changed the world forever. Find out how it’s thanks to the potter’s wheel that the International Space Station exists, and how the same nails that built pirate ships hold together the tallest buildings in the world.

In this children’s illustrated adaptation of her adult book, Nuts and Bolts, award-winning engineer turned bestselling author Roma Agrawal makes STEM accessible, intriguing and aspirational, and encourages children to be endlessly curious about the ‘things’ that make up our world.

‘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.

‘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

‘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
__________

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.

As seen on Steph’s Packed Lunch and featured in Cerys Matthew’s BBC Radio 6 Music show and ‘The Dreams We Live Inside’ on BBC Radio 4

Join Roma Agrawal, the award-winning structural engineer who worked on The Shard, for an exciting behind-the-scenes look at some of the world’s most amazing landmarks.

Meet the extraordinary people who challenged our beliefs about what’s possible, pioneering remarkable inventions that helped build the Brooklyn Bridge in the US, the Pantheon in Italy, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Shard in England and the Sapporo Dome in Japan. Discover the ingenious methods engineers have come up with to enable us to build underground, underwater, on ice and even in space. And learn about the impact different forces and materials can have on a structure by carrying out your own engineering experiments from the ‘Try it at Home’ sections.

Beautiful and detailed illustrations by Katie Hickey, including cross-sections, skylines and close-ups of engineering techniques in action, provide unique and illuminating perspectives of our most awe-inspiring constructions.

Get ready to see the built world around you like never before!

‘Exploring this beautiful book feels like having a conversation with Roma, full of expert insight and fascinating detail. With playful illustrations, stacks of brand-new information and plenty of context – this is children’s non-fiction at its best’ Isabel Thomas, science writer and author of Moth and Fox

‘Skilfully illustrated and filled with remarkable details, this book is a treat for any young engineer. Roma’s breadth of knowledge and genuine passion shines through every page. It’s simply beautiful’ Angela Saini, science journalist and author

‘Open this book at any page and you are immediately sucked into the fascination of how things work – a wonderful achievement and a beautiful one too’ Mark Miodownik, materials engineer, broadcaster and author of Stuff Matters

‘How Was That Built? is a brilliant and essential book ? Hopefully schools and libraries will purchase the book in big numbers because it deserves to be widely read and discussed. I also think it will do a lot to encourage young people to consider a career in construction’ Infrastructure-Intelligence.com