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Nuts & Bolts
BUILT
How Was That Built?
Seven Small Inventions
Seven small inventions that changed the world
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.
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NUTS & BOLTS: Seven small inventions that changed the world (in a big way)
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​Agrawal is an engineer who is known for her work designing The Shard. In Nuts and Bolts, she will explore seven building-blocks of engineering that have come to underpin the world: the nail, spring, wheel, lens, magnet, string and pump. Agrawal will also explore how these inventions led to more intricate technologies, from dishwashers to spacesuits to breast pumps. In addition, the book will tell the stories of scientists and engineers from all over the world.
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HOW WAS THAT BUILT?
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Shortlisted for the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize 2022
Best-seller on Bookshop.org
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The world is full of incredible structures. Skyscrapers soaring up to the clouds, bridges reaching across the widest, deepest rivers, tunnels boring deep into the earth … But have you ever stopped to wonder how they were built?
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Join Roma Agrawal, the award-winning young structural engineer who worked on The Shard, for an exciting behind-the-scenes look at some of the world's most amazing landmarks.​
"Not only is Roma Agrawal extremely clever and a wonderfully engaging writer, she is a brilliant advocate for her profession" - A Word about Books​
BUILT: The Hidden Stories Behind our Structures
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Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize
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In BUILT, structural engineer Roma Agrawal takes a unique look at how construction has evolved from the mud huts of our ancestors to towers of steel that reach into the sky. She unearths how humans have tunnelled through kilometres of solid mountain, bridged the widest and deepest of rivers, and tamed Nature’s precious – and elusive – water resources. She tells vivid tales of the pioneers behind landmark builds such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Burj Khalifa, and examines, from an engineering perspective, tragedies like the collapse of the Twin Towers. She reveals how she designs a building so it will stand strong – even in the face of gales, fire, earthquakes and explosions.
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With colourful stories of her life-long fascination with buildings – and her own hand-drawn illustrations – Roma uncovers the extraordinary secret lives of structures.
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"The Shard engineer has long been fascinated by the technical ingenuity of design. Now she wants to help us see the built environment with similar wonder" - The Observer
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"She weaves accessible explanations of scientific principles together with engaging historical stories and personal anecdotes." - The Guardian